


Rumours Kill Rumours

by poppyfields



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crushes, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gay, High School, Lesbian Character, Light Angst, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:49:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27576107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppyfields/pseuds/poppyfields
Summary: Yamaguchi Tadashi and Yachi Hitoka both know how detrimental rumours can be. They both know what it's like to have a secret you're constantly worried will be revealed. So when they figure out they can silence all that by pretending to date each other, it seems like the obvious solution.Note: I put yamayachi in the tags but there is no romantic development between them.
Relationships: Shimizu Kiyoko & Yachi Hitoka, Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka, Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi, Yachi Hitoka & Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 36
Kudos: 177





	1. A Unique Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They wouldn't have guessed it when they first met, but Yachi and Tadashi have a lot in common, so when they get the chance to, they quickly become close friends.

Yamaguchi Tadashi never had a lot of friends. In fact, you could probably take ‘a lot’ out of that sentence and it would be just as accurate. In his life, excepting casual playmates from his childhood, or the cousin on his dad’s side he got along well with, he had exactly one friend. Tsukishima Kei. Even when he started highschool, 15 years old, Tsukki was and had always been his only friend. He wasn’t necessarily sad about it. Kei was the best friend Tadashi could ask for. They knew each other better than anyone else and they did everything together, so it wasn’t like he ever really felt lonely. He didn’t need any other friends, but maybe he just forced himself to feel that way because he didn’t think he’d be able to make any.

Yachi Hitoka had always had at least a couple friends. She didn’t have any sort of strong or difficult personality, so she generally fell in with the group of girls she sat with in class that year. She always had people to walk home with, people to eat lunch with, and people to hang out with on weekends, but they’d never really stick. If she was put in a different class than the other girls it rarely took more than a week or two for them to make a new group chat without her, stop visiting her class during lunch, and, basically, forget she ever existed. She didn’t see anything wrong with it, of course they would make new friends in their new class, she would make friends in hers, it was just the way it was, but sometimes she wished she had a best friend. The kind she always saw in books or movies, or even walking through the halls. The kind that knew your house as well as their own, and cried or complained when you ended up in different classes. She’d never had a friendship like that.

To tell you the truth Yachi didn’t remember the first time she met Tadashi. She’d blindly followed the pretty girl into the gym and been so overwhelmed by the sound of squeaking shoes and bouncing balls that all the giant guys, looming over her, introducing themselves, just sort of blended together into a big, scary, blob. She'd only figured out his name when he and Tsukishima joined her to tutor Hinata and Kageyama.

Tadashi remembered meeting Yachi, though. He'd actually seen her in the halls before she came to the gym that day and he remembered thinking she was cute. When he realised she was joining the team as a manager he wondered if maybe this was the start of his first love, or first successful love at least. It was based on next to nothing, but it was a fun thing to think.

In the week that followed, Tadashi talked about her enough that Tsukishima had started to tease him about it.  
“Just talk to her you wuss,” he would urge at practice, “It’s not that hard.”  
It freaked Tadashi out, he didn’t really know how to flirt or even how to act around someone you liked, but he couldn’t chicken out in front of Tsukki, so over the course of their camp in Tokyo he slowly started to approach her. It was the first practice after they’d returned from their trip when Tsukki saw him staring at her during practice.  
“Oh my god, you’re so pathetic,” He’d groaned, “She’s not even doing anything. Stop drooling and just go sit with her.”  
Tadashi felt his stomach flip. She was just sitting on a bench gazing across the gym and she probably would be happy to have someone to talk to, but it still made him nervous. Tsukishima gave him an annoyed side eye and Tadashi knew he had to just do it. Mustering all his courage he made his way across the gym and lowered himself onto the bench beside her. He looked out at the floor in front of him, trying to think of something to say.

“Isn’t she just amazing?” Yachi gushed, stare still focused across the gym.  
Tadashi hadn’t really noticed where she was looking, he’d assumed she was just watching Hinata and Kageyama practicing their attack, but when he followed her eyes he found she was actually looking at the third years, who were talking by the sidelines. More specifically, based on what she’d just said, she was looking at Shimizu, who was smiling the way she only smiled when she was happy with her friends.  
Yamaguchi took a second to process. He looked between the two managers more than a couple times to make sure he was interpreting the look correctly. When he finally decided it wasn’t his imagination he chuckled slightly.

It was weird, he supposedly liked Yachi, so shouldn’t he be sad to find out she liked someone else? Shouldn’t he feel hurt or jealous or something? He didn’t feel any of those things. In fact, in an instant it felt as if the crush had never happened. All the awkwardness and pressure he’d felt before melted off him and he suddenly felt more comfortable around Yachi than he’d felt since he met her.

Suddenly, realisation hit the young manager, and her head spun to face Tadashi so quick he was worried for the state of her neck.  
“Wait, did I just say that out loud?” Yamaguchi laughed in response, “Oh my god, no, it’s, it’s not like that I swear, I just-”  
“Don’t worry about it,” Tadashi interrupted, “You’re right, she is amazing.”  
Yachi stared pointedly at her shoes, letting her hair swing in front of her face and hide her blushing as much as possible. When Tadashi looked up, he could tell Tsukishima had been watching them. His friend flashed a little thumbs up at his hip, he could imagine what this scene must look like to him, especially with the knowledge of his crush. He couldn’t begin to convey how wrong Tsukki was, but Tadashi smiled and shook his head. Tsukki tilted his head as if to ask why, but evidently decided he didn’t care quickly after, and turned away to continue with his practice.  
“Please don’t tell anyone,” Yachi finally spoke, “I mean, not that there’s anything to tell, I mean, I don’t even like her like that, we’re just friends. I mean, of course we are.”  
“I get it.”  
Yamaguchi smiled so kindly that when Yachi looked up, it made her believe him, still she couldn’t stop. She felt like she had to defend herself.  
“Just, if you _thought_ anything,” she continued, “Don’t tell anyone about what you thought.”  
Yamaguchi looked at her out of the side of his eyes. She looked really embarrassed, and he knew how she felt. He wanted to make her feel less uncomfortable, he would have loved if someone had done it for him. He braced himself, realising what he was about to do.  
“You know, in middle school, there was a rumour going around that I liked Tsukki,” he could feel his cheeks burning as he said it.  
This rumour had just about ruined his life when it originally circulated and he’d swore he would do anything in his power to keep it from following him to highschool, but he felt like Yachi had to hear this. She had to know she wasn’t alone.  
“Really?”  
When she looked up at him with shining eyes, embarrassment gone from her face, like he’d just told her she’d won the lottery, he knew he’d made the right choice.  
“Yeah, I- it was pretty silly,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck to distract from the heat gathering there, “but, I guess people had their reasons to think that.”  
Now it was his turn to stare at his shoes, while Yachi watched him intently, considering.  
“Yeah,” she admitted, turning away from him, “I guess I could understand why someone would think I like Kiyoko-san. I mean, we spend a lot of time together, and she’s really nice, and really pretty.”  
Tadashi smiled, “Yeah, let them think what they think, right?”  
Yachi matched his grin, “Yeah!”

* * *

That was the start of their strange friendship. Once he was over his feelings for her, Tadashi realised he had a lot in common with Yachi. They had similar taste in movies and TV shows, they both listened to the same k-pop groups. All the things that Tsukki made fun of him for Yachi either loved just as much as him, or was amazed to hear him talk about and would promise him to check it out when she had free time. Also, she was always happy to do the things Tsukishima thought were stupid or too much trouble, like walking to the convenience store during lunch breaks or actually going to school festivals. 

He found himself having a lot of fun with Yachi, and even though he didn’t often like to talk about his past feelings for Tsukishima, it was nice to know he had a friend who knew and didn’t judge him for it. It was nice to know when something weird happened or he needed advice, he had someone he could talk to. 

Yachi felt the same way. She’d never had someone to talk about her crushes to, and even though Tadashi rarely had advice to offer her, he was happy to listen to her gush and sometimes that was all she wanted to do. She had the realisation about a week into their friendship that maybe this was why she’d never had a best friend before. Maybe it was because all she wanted to do was talk about girls so she was always holding herself back. Maybe it was because she thought if she ever got too close to a girl they’d think she liked them.

Now, for the first time she felt something close to what she thought having a best friend must feel like. She had, at least, a real friend that wasn’t just her friend because it was convenient. I mean, they were in different classes and he would come to her class door at the start of lunch and wait for her so they could eat together. She’d never had anyone do that for her before. She loved hanging out with him, and she felt more like herself than she did with anyone. Without having to force anything they were hanging out at least every couple of days, talking whenever they got the chance, and sending each other memes, videos, show recommendations and playlists all the time. 

Of course, the rumours about them spread at an alarming rate. It was high school, first year in fact, and they were two people of opposite genders who hung out alone. In their classmates’ minds there was only one possible explanation, of course they were dating! Even Tsukishima asked Tadashi nearly every day what was going on. From his perspective it made no sense. Tadashi had a crush on a girl, he made her blush one day at volleyball practice, and since then they were together all the time? So then why did Tadashi swear they were just friends? Yamaguchi wished he could explain better, but he’d promised not to tell anyone about Yachi’s feelings for Kiyoko, and that was about the only proof he could give that they weren’t a couple.

“I don’t see what’s so hard to believe,” Yachi complained as they went out for lunch one day.  
“Right? Like girls and boys can’t just be friends? Are they really that sexist?” Tadashi continued for her.  
“I know! Like what? I’m so lame because I’m a girl that you could only want to see me if you wanted to date me?”  
“Yeah, and I’m so full of hormones I can’t hang out with you and not want to, like, pounce or something?”  
“Honestly, they’re all so stupid,” Yachi hummed.  
She felt distinct pleasure at the fact that it felt like something you say to your best friend. It was something she’d never really said before.  
“They are,” Tadashi groaned, “Even Tsukki! Like, he says he trusts me, but he’s still so suspicious all the time. I’ve never lied to him, not once, why can’t he believe me when I say we’re just friends.”  
“Hmm,” Yachi sounded. 

She rarely made comments about Tsukishima to Tadashi because she never really knew what he wanted her to say. If she trashed him, Yamaguchi would get hyper defensive and start explaining how he really wasn’t as bad as he seemed, but if she tried to defend him he would go on a rant about how she “didn’t even know” and he was so annoying and infuriating. She’d decided the best course of action when he started talking about his friend was just to make vague, non-committal, sounds until he tired himself out, or change the subject completely. Today she thought she’d do the latter.

“I guess I kinda know why everyone thinks we’re dating though,” she admitted, “It’s ridiculous, don’t get me wrong, but half the couples in our year don’t even like each other.”  
Tadashi laughed.  
“Like do you know Tashiro and Toma in class two?”  
Tadashi thought for a second, “She wears her hair in a braid and he has a perm, right?”  
Yachi nodded, “They can barely stand each other. I saw them walking home from school together one day and I swear, not a single word was exchanged.”

He laughed again. He knew it was bad, but Tadashi absolutely loved talking shit. He and Tsukki had always hated on just about everyone around them, but Tsukki wasn’t always that observant. Yachi on the other hand could meet someone, shake their hand, and say goodbye and she would come back to you with a full analysis of the trauma they'd experienced in their life and the way it affected them to this day. Were all girls like this? It was seriously impressive.

“Yeah, I mean I guess compared to that we look like Romeo and Juliet,” Tadashi joked.  
“Seriously! We’re the great love story of our generation and I don’t even like boys.”  
For someone he’d had a crush on only a few weeks before, Tadashi was surprisingly comfortable joking about this kind of stuff with Yachi, but it felt like he’d known her longer than two weeks, and it felt like the Yachi he’d had a crush on was a completely different person from the one he was friends with now. He couldn’t imagine ever seeing her that way again.

* * *

Less than 48 hours had passed since the day they’d complained ruthlessly about the way people spread rumours about them, when Yachi first started to see their merit. She was sitting in her classroom before first period that day, and the volleyball team just had a morning practice, so she’d walked to class with Tadashi and he’d come in for a second and walked her to her desk. Her class friend group consisted of her deskmate, Nomura Misaki, and the two girls that sat in front of them, Kanai Sayuri and Kuroda Kiku.

“So, you’re the first one to get a boyfriend Ya-chan,” Misaki grinned, “Got any tips for the rest of us?”  
“What? No, Tadashi’s not-” Yachi started in defense.  
“I’m going to be honest, I was really surprised,” Kanai interrupted her.  
The other girls giggled as if they knew what Kanai meant, and it made Yachi suddenly feel very small. Had they all talked about this behind her back?  
“Yeah, we- No offense Ya-chan but we-” Kuroda had to stop to laugh before she finished her sentence, “We all kind of thought you liked…”  
She couldn’t say it, she just broke out in giggles. Yachi had a feeling she knew what she was trying to say though.  
“We thought you liked that Shimizu-senpai from the volleyball club,” Misaki teased.

Yup, Yachi was right. The girls all laughed, as if it was the most ridiculous thing they’d ever said, but the fact that they’d all discussed it enough to finish each other’s sentences proved to Yachi there had been a time when it hadn’t been so silly to them. They had definitely talked about it behind Yachi’s back and she was willing to bet it hadn’t been all smiles and laughter when they had. She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel in a situation like this, but all she felt was a vague disappointment. Part of her knew this would be how all the “friends” she’d had in the past would react to that piece of her, and now that she had Tadashi she knew that wasn’t really how friends should act.

Luckily they’d only brought it up to say they no longer believed it, and the reason they no longer believed it was because they thought she was dating Tadashi. It kind of hurt to know they probably liked her more now that they thought she had a boyfriend, especially when she knew she would never actually want one, but she’d always had the suspicion. She was inherently a pretty logical person, so if anything it was kind of comforting to know for sure how they felt, and now that she knew, she thought maybe it would be best not to tell them she and Tadashi were really just friends. She respected the girls less now, but at the end of the day, she didn’t want to be awkward with her deskmates and if this was the way to make that happen, then so be it.

“Wait let me get this straight,” Tadashi confirmed that day at lunch, “You want me to pretend to be your boyfriend?”  
“We wouldn’t even have to change anything,” She urged him, “Everyone’s already convinced we're a couple, we could just stop correcting them.”  
“I…” Tadashi couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about this raised an alarm in him, “I don’t know Yachi.”  
“Oh come on!” she begged, sounding like her heart and soul had already been sold on the idea, “It would solve all our problems. We could just hang out as friends, we wouldn’t have to worry about people getting the wrong idea because we would want them to get that idea, and no one would ever be able to say anything about me liking Kiyoko or you liking Tsukishima because we could just be like, ‘What are you talking about? I have a boyfriend!’. Or I guess girlfriend in your case.”  
Tadashi bit his lip. She seemed really excited about it, and the points she raised made a lot of sense, but what was it? Why did something about it make him feel so unsure?  
“It’s just like you said,” Yachi added, hoping it would be the last push that drove her point home, “Let them think what they think.”  
Tadashi still wasn’t fully convinced, but for some reason he couldn’t think of one good counter argument, Yachi had just argued her point so well.  
“I guess we can just see what happens.”

Apparently Tadashi’s brain had been playing some kind of prank on him, because the whole walk back from the convenience store, even with the bad feeling tugging at his gut, Yamaguchi couldn’t think of a single good reason to oppose the fake relationship plan, but the second he was in his desk with nowhere to go and his teacher began lecturing, suddenly his imagination was running overtime. Every abstract feeling of doubt about the plan suddenly bloomed into a fully grown argument against it, and for the rest of class all he could think about was getting to Yachi as quickly as possible to tell her he’d changed his mind.

The first worry that occurred to him was what he would tell Tsukki. Tadashi was a good liar, but Tsukki was the one person he couldn’t hide anything from. They talked about everything, even stupid stuff, so the idea of lying to him about something this big, it just felt, wrong. Then again, he couldn’t tell him the truth, because the truth included Yachi’s secret. 

Secondly, how long were they even planning to do this? It could be assumed eventually one of them would have someone they actually wanted to date, or some reason why the fake relationship didn’t benefit them any more. Would they have to stage some kind of fake breakup? Would they have to stop hanging out after the fake breakup to make it seem realistic?

Tadashi’s last concern was maybe a little sillier than the other two, but when he thought of it it worried him just as much. What if his feelings came back? It seemed ridiculous now, but there had been a time, not that long ago, when he’d liked Yachi. The feelings had dissipated quickly when he realised he didn’t have a chance in hell, but if they were fake dating? What if he got confused? He’d watched enough romcoms and k-dramas to recognise a trope this common. The _“friends who decide to pretend to date for various, not-always-well-justified, reasons and then slowly they realise they don’t want to fake it any more and they fall in love for real”_. He knew his life wasn’t a k-drama, but hey, they had to be based on something, right?

When the bell rang for their afternoon break Tadashi shot out his seat like a catapult and turned directly to the door.  
“Wait, where are you-” Tsukishima called after him, but Tadashi didn’t even have time to stop.  
In his mind, he could picture all Yachi’s classmates turning to her right this second, leaning in with a raised eyebrow and asking what exactly the two of them had done over lunch. He had to get there before she answered.

When he got to the door of her classroom, the bell had barely stopped ringing and the students were all still closing their notebooks and arranging their pencil cases.  
“Um, Yachi-san,” he hoped using honorifics would make their relationship seem less close.  
“Ooooohhh,” the girls of the class sang, proving he had been unsuccessful.  
“Wow, it’s only been one period and he’s already back to see you,” the girl sitting next to Yachi grinned.  
“Your boyfriend is like, totally obsessed with you, Ya-chan,” another girl teased.

Tadashi felt his stomach fall. Oh. He was already too late. She’d already told them all. There was no point trying to take it back now. They’d either have to say Yachi was a liar or fake a breakup, which was one of the things he had explicitly said he didn’t want to do. He sighed, accepting his fate, as he watched Yachi walk timidly through the desks to meet him at the door.  
“What’s up?”  
“Oh, um,” it didn’t really matter what he said now, “I couldn’t find my phone after lunch. I wondered if maybe you had it.”  
Yachi was pretty sure he was lying, she didn’t see any reason why she would have his phone, but she touched her pockets and turned her head to her desk as if checking.  
“No, I don’t think I’ve seen it.”  
“Ah,” his tone was dead, “It must be in my bag or something.”  
He stepped out of the classroom and turned to head down the hall.  
“See you after school I guess.”  
“Yeah,” Yachi waved, “See you.”

When Tadashi returned to his own class there were more than a couple eyes on him.  
“What was that about?” asked Tsukishima.  
Tadashi didn’t answer. He just pulled out his chair, took his seat, rested his elbows on his desk and put his head in his hands.  
_I guess this is happening,_ he thought to himself.  
Taking a deep breath, he raised his head to meet Tsukishima’s confused stare.  
“Me and Yachi are dating.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading chapter 1. I know the chapters are kind of short but I'm hoping to make up for that by having a lot of chapters.  
> I really hope you enjoyed and love Yachi and Tadashi as much as I do.  
> Next chapter is the start of Tsukiyama, so check it out!
> 
> Thanks again!


	2. The Return of The Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi and Yachi have decided to pretend to date, despite Tadashi's better judgment, but something strange happens when he tells his best friend. Is Tsukishima... jealous?

“Me and Yachi are dating.”  
Yamaguchi had tried to deceive Tsukishima before, normally about small, insignificant things, “Yes of course I ate breakfast”, “No, this documentary on World War II warships seems really interesting”, “What? Why would something like that that hurt my feelings?”, but this was one of the first times he truly felt like he was flat out lying. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get away with it. Tsukki had known him for years, and even though reading emotions wasn’t his strong suit, Tadashi thought he knew him well enough not to fall for such an obvious lie.

He’d been so concerned with whether he could successfully convince him he hadn’t even stopped to consider what Tsukishima would make of the news. Though, even if he had considered it, there’s no way he would’ve expected this. Maybe he was imagining it, but Tsukki looked, sort of, sad?  
“Oh,” he didn’t meet Tadashi’s eyes, “Good for you.”

No, it couldn’t be. Tadashi must be delusional. Of course Tsukki was frowning, he always frowned. Of course he didn’t make eye contact, he rarely ever did. This weird mood wasn’t in response to what Tadashi had said, Tsukki was probably just having a bad day. Or, not even a bad day, just an average one. Tsukki was always pissed off for absolutely no reason, this must just be one of those times. Still, the thought peaked through all the piled-on excuses. The thought that Tsukishima seemed, almost… jealous.

He hated himself for thinking it. There was absolutely no way. Tsukishima had all but rejected him in middle school. He’d been the one to encourage Tadashi to go after Yachi. In fact, hadn’t he been convinced they’d been dating the whole last week? If his bad mood really was, Tadashi cringed even thinking it, jealousy, wouldn’t he have reacted like this when he’d first become suspicious. It didn’t make sense for him to react now. They were unrelated, they had to be.

But it was too late to rationalise now. He’d already had the thought and the idiot part of his brain, the pathetic part, the part that controlled his feelings for Tsukki, was holding on to it and wouldn’t let go. He hated that part of his brain. It was beyond reason, beyond logic. The only way to keep it from running rampant was to starve it of any false hopes, but it was so unbelievably stupid that nearly anything would make it go crazy. The last time it woke up was a couple months ago, when he’d forgotten to bring his toothbrush to a sleepover and he’d had to borrow Tsukki’s. He knew it was a meaningless gesture, hardly even a gesture at all, he just needed a toothbrush and that was the only one there, but of course the idiot part of his brain realised this was technically an indirect kiss, and it had fed off of that for weeks.

“I’m stupid, right? I’m literally stupid,” Tadashi ranted as the fake couple wandered the shopping mall on their first ever fake date.  
If we’re being truthful, it wasn’t really much of a fake date, more Yachi needed new socks and when she told Tadashi about it, he said he wouldn’t mind looking at sneakers, but they were officially a fake couple now, so every outing together was officially a fake date.  
“Like, you should have seen what happened in middle school,” he continued, “When that, that rumour started up. We barely talked for weeks, and I’m the only person he talks to, so he was essentially just silent. I had to swear on my life it wasn’t true. I spent so long convincing him, and even then it was so awkward. And now, what? He frowns and suddenly that means he’s in love with me?”

“Yeah, that’s tough,” Yachi had certainly been listening, but her eyes had never stopped scanning the store windows, “I mean, you obviously know Tsukishima better than I do, so I have to trust you on what he’s feeling, but it’s always good not to get your hopes too high.”

See, this was why Tadashi loved her. She obviously cared about his feelings, but she wasn’t going to lie to make him feel better. She told him what he needed to hear and what she honestly thought. And she didn’t make a big deal about it too. He couldn’t stand too much attention, and he hated fake people, even though he himself was about as fake as they come. That was why he liked when Tsukki told him when he thought he was lame, and that was why he liked when Yachi told him not to get his hopes up about Tsukishima.

“In middle school one time,” Yachi confessed, still window shopping as she talked, “I had a crush on my friend’s sister, and she told me I was cute once when I came over to dinner. I thought we were gonna get married. I thought we were meant to be. When I slept over one time and she asked her sister and I to cover for her while she snuck out to visit her boyfriend I thought my heart was breaking, and she probably didn’t even remember my name.”

Tadashi laughed, “Ok, but that is definitely something I would do.”  
Yachi grinned and looked over at him for the first time, “That’s why we’re perfect together.”

* * *

It didn’t take long into their fake relationship for Tadashi to realise all his fears were pretty much stupid. What if they wanted to date someone else? Yachi had never been interested in a man in her life, so if she did find someone to date, she’d probably have to do it in secret anyway, and Yamaguchi was kidding himself if he thought he would find a girl that wanted to date him. Even if he could, it would have to be just in the right pocket between his stupid reoccuring Tsukishima crushes. And the idea that he would develop feelings for Yachi again? It was very clear that crush had more than passed. He couldn’t begin to picture the Yachi he was friends with now in any sort of romantic capacity, especially not with the current state of the Tsukki situation.

Lying to Tsukki still kind of bugged him, but his stupid fantasy of Tsukishima being jealous excited him just enough that it cancelled out the guilt. In fact, though he knew it was a shitty thing to feel as Tsukki’s supposed best friend, but part of him, again, the idiot part, thought that even if there was no other motivation, even if Yachi hadn’t asked him to lie, the satisfaction he got from talking about his fake girlfriend and pretending the, probably completely normal, look Tsukki gave him meant he was burning with jealousy and the pain of unrequited love, was almost enough to make this whole thing worth it. God, he was so stupid sometimes.

But all in all, the drawbacks of pretending he had a girlfriend weren’t nearly as bad as he’d feared, and the benefits were even better. He never had to put himself on guard around Tsukki, he knew no one would assume the worst, he didn’t have to worry too much about Yachi’s secret either, and all he had to do was hang out with his friend sometimes. In fact, they hung out way more than was necessary to keep their cover. They just enjoyed each other’s company. They spent at least three lunches a week together, though Tadashi still liked to eat with Tsukki sometimes. They talked during practice or in the halls during breaks. They had almost no reason to, the people from their school wouldn’t find out if they didn’t, but they even went out on “dates” at least once a week. 

Their dates weren’t anything more than what normal friends would do, but Tadashi still loved them. It was amazing, he’d see a poster for a movie that looked interesting and by the end of the day Yachi had sent him the trailer with a message that said “we should totally watch this”. He would be feeling a little down and she would immediately notice and insist they go to a bunny cafe. He had fun with Tsukishima, but they’d always just sort of gone to one of their houses and talked, or watched something on their laptops, or read in comfortable silence. He’d never realised a friendship could be so… fun.

He really didn’t mean to, Tsukishima still meant more to him than anything, but he found himself prioritizing Yachi, the way he might if they really were dating. It was hard not to though. How do you turn down going to your favourite idol’s concert with someone who loves them just as much as you just to sit in your childhood best friend's bedroom to watch youtube videos of dudes with _edgy humour_ playing video games you didn’t even know. How do you spend lunch hour sitting in the desk you sit in all day, sharing shitty, potentially dangerous, earphones with a guy you have to pretend you don’t have feelings for, listening to American rap music and talking shit about the same two people from your volleyball team you talk about every day, when you could be out in the sun, getting ice cream and steamed buns from Sakanoshita Market and talking shit about every person in the school.

It didn’t help that the more he ignored Tsukki the more he got to live out his fantasy of moving on and leaving Tsukishima to writhe in his unrequited love. He still couldn’t believe he’d let this stupid delusion get this far, but even weeks into his fake relationship, he was still basking in it. If anything it had gotten worse. Every time Tsukki scoffed or rolled his eyes while Tadashi talked about Yachi, which was something he did when any couple did just about anything because he absolutely hated PDA, Tadashi convinced himself it was his built-up resentment at her for taking him away. When Tsukki looked at the two of them talking with lowered eyebrows and a slight frown, which was just Tsukishima’s natural resting face, Tadashi convinced himself he couldn’t bear to see him happy with someone else. When Tsukki griped that he was spending time with Yachi again, or asked him if they could hang out, which was perfectly natural given he was Tsukishima’s only friend and he had very suddenly started hanging out with him about half as often, Tadashi convinced himself he was begging him to stay, grasping to moments when he could pretend that nothing had changed and they were still the way they had been in the past.

Even though they were all obviously just coincidences, and even though Tadashi knew for a fact that Tsukki didn’t have any sort of romantic feelings for him, again, the idiot part of his brain had been hard at work.   
With all the new, 90% imaginary, content to work with, the little area of Tadashi’s brain that he couldn’t control, even when it was all he wanted to do, had crafted a beautiful little fantasy world. He called it, with pride, _Pining Tsukki_.

 _Pining Tsukki_ had feelings for Tadashi since they were a lot younger, he just hadn’t realised. When he heard the rumours about Tadashi’s feelings in middle school _Pining Tsukki_ had been confused, he hadn’t known what to do. _Pining Tsukki_ didn’t realise until it was too late that he felt the same way. When they’d started high school _Pining Tsukki_ tried to push Tadashi away to hide his own feelings, he never would have thought it would actually work, that Tadashi was actually… over him.

In Tadashi’s imagination _Pining Tsukki_ was torn to pieces over his past actions. He wished he’d never rejected Tadashi, he wished he’d never encouraged him to go after Yachi. In his imagination _Pining Tsukki_ sat in the classroom alone when he and Yachi went to lunch, listening to depressing love songs and wondering why he wasn’t good enough. _Pining Tsukki_ looked at photos of the two of them from the years past (not that there even were any, _real Tsukki_ hated taking pictures) and wondered where he ever went wrong.

It was so completely unrealistic. Probably even more unrealistic than Tadashi’s fantasy of the guy from the romance anime he’d watched when he was thirteen somehow crossing into their world just to be with him, or the fantasy of the lead singer from his favourite girl group noticing him in the crowd during a concert and deciding she was in love with him. I mean, Tsukishima Kei, pining? There was absolutely no way. He was the most straight forward person Tadashi had ever met, there was no way he would’ve rejected him if he’d secretly had feelings for him, let alone convince him to talk to Yachi. And Tsukishima never regretted anything. He made his choices based on logic and reasoning and he trusted those decisions. The whole thing was, if anything, just a testament to what a bad friend Tadashi was. Still, _Pining Tsukki_ quickly replaced all other fantasies as the go-to when he was bored in class or when he was trying to fall asleep and have good dreams.

* * *

“Oh my god Tadashi,” Yachi grinned, hearing him explain the new, insanely weak, argument in support of his idea Tsukishima liked him.   
Maybe it made her a bad friend, but she loved when he got like this. She was always talking about Kiyoko-san, or some other crush of the week, and though she knew Tadashi didn’t judge her for it, it was nice to see him on her level. It was nice to see anyone on her level. For a while she’d assumed she was just insanely girl-crazy, but it was clear Tadashi was crushing just as hard as she did.

He was also really funny when he got like this. Not his usual kind of witty jokes, or snarky comments, which she also loved, but just completely, unintentionally, hilarious. He was just so calm and composed normally, but when it came to Tsukishima, it was like his brain went out the window. He was entirely self-aware about it, too. When Yachi laughed as he tried to explain his side of the story, he wasn’t offended. Often he’d laugh with her. At first, she’d tried to be supportive of him, the way he was supportive of her crushes, but she came to realise he didn’t really want that. He came to her so she could tell him how unrealistic he was being, tell him he didn’t have a chance in hell.

The problem was, unreasonable as some of his ideas were, and despite her better judgment, Yachi was starting to see where he was coming from. She knew Tadashi could read Tsukishima better than her, in fact, she thought of all the people at the school, he was the biggest mystery to her, but when she heard Tadashi explain what each of his little glances or snappy responses could, in his dream world at least, mean, she found herself being somewhat convinced. I mean, she’d always been scared of the middle blocker, he was, like, forty centimetres taller than her and he never smiled, of course she was scared of him, but ever since she’d started “dating” Yamaguchi, it seemed, somehow, worse.

She didn’t want to tell Tadashi, he’d explained well enough that she knew his current goal was to try and get over these feelings, not pursue them, but if he’d wanted her to encourage this, she wouldn’t have to try that hard. She would watch Tsukishima’s expression from the door of their classroom when she came to pick Tadashi up for lunch and be sure it was at least a little sad. She would feel a sort of awkward tension whenever the three of them talked together, like he wanted her gone. Maybe she was imagining it, but one time Tadashi came up to her during practice to say he had to cancel their date because he was going to sleep over at Tsukki’s, she swore she saw the tall blond _smirk_ at her. Like, a taunting kind of smirk that said _“I win you lose”_.

Maybe it was just because they were best friends, and Yachi had never had a best friend before, but if someone she had a crush on was acting the way Tsukishima was, she would probably be acting more insane than Tadashi. 

She wanted to tell him, but it would be awful if she raised his hopes only for Tsukishima to reject him again. She needed definitive proof one way or the other. Thus began her secret endeavour, _Mission: Is it Jealousy, or is Tsukishima Just a Bitch?_

She started with something simple. Was he interested in girls? Was he interested in getting a girlfriend? It wasn’t a clear decider, but it was something she could figure out pretty easily, and she thought it would give her a good place to start.

“Hey! Tsukishima,” she cornered in the halls one morning, she had to do it when Tadashi wasn’t around, he would figure out what she was doing too quickly, “Do you have a minute to talk?”  
Tsukishima looked down at her, disgusted, like she was a bug. He took his headphones off and hung them around his neck.  
“What’s up?” he asked, but his expression said he really didn’t care.  
Sometimes Yachi couldn’t help but wonder what Tadashi saw in this guy.  
“Um, this is kind of embarrassing, but a girl in my class asked me to talk to you.”  
That was a lie, none of the girls had specifically asked her to do this, but enough of them had something along the lines of “What’s your boyfriend’s friend’s name?”, or “Wow, he’s so tall!”, which Yachi knew was straight-girl for “I’m interested in him”, that she felt like if somehow Tsukishima was excited about the idea she could find someone to date him. Though that would be a hard one to explain to Tadashi.  
“What? Why?”  
Tsukishima seemed genuinely confused. Did he seriously not know what “someone asked me to talk to you” meant?  
“Um, I think she likes you,” Yachi lied again, “she wanted me to ask if you had a girlfriend, or someone you liked.”  
Tsukishima scoffed and put his headphones back on, “That’s stupid.”

Yachi stood in place as she watched him stroll away. What the hell did that mean? God, he was so weird! Couldn’t Tadashi have a crush on a normal person? She tried to piece together whatever she could from the strange interaction. He hadn’t said if he liked anyone, though she thought that was a long shot when she said it. He also didn’t seem at all interested in the girl though. That had been her biggest worry, if he’d been interested it would have been the end of the story, but “that’s stupid”? She could work with that.

From there she began to formulate the next stage of her investigation. Maybe she could pretend she needed advice about Yamaguchi and get Tsukishima to tell her about their relationship from his perspective, or would that be too obvious. She still hadn’t decided on her plan of action but she figured while she plotted it wouldn’t hurt to get closer to Tsukishima when she could. Whenever Tadashi was away or wasn’t looking, because she still hadn’t told him about her secret mission, Yachi tried her best to talk to his friend. It took an insane amount of effort, Tsukishima was by no means an easy person to talk to, but they had enough reason to be friends that he didn’t outright object when she talked to him.

Finally, when she felt she had gained enough of Tsukishima’s trust, she decided she would go in for the kill. Her and Tadashi were nearing two months as a couple, or would be if it wasn’t all fake, and she decided this was as good an excuse as any to approach Tsukishima for advice.  
“I want to get him something,” she explained after stopping him outside the gym before practice that day, “He’s just, he’s been such a good boyfriend, and I thought, you know him better than anyone.”  
Tsukishima glared at her in a way he’d never glared at her before. Ok, she wasn’t imagining it, he was pissed off. She cowered under his stare, regretting the whole plan, until suddenly he huffed a laugh out his nose. She tried to look at his face, a laugh? What was that about? He was looking at her now with something other than anger. It was more like taunting, like a challenge.  
“Did Yamaguchi ever tell you he had a crush on me in middle school?”

Yachi’s jaw dropped. Not at the news because, of course, that had been the first thing they’d bonded over, but at the fact that Tsukishima brought it up. This was significant. This was better than whatever she’d been looking for. If she wasn’t crazy, which she didn’t think she was, this was proof.

“Wh- what?” She stammered.  
Luckily it seemed Tsukishima had gotten the reaction he’d been hoping for, and he smirked, adjusted his glasses, turned away from her, and strutted into the gym.  
Yachi turned her head away from him so he wouldn’t catch a glimpse of her expression, but she couldn’t help smiling. Holy shit, this was big! She had to tell Yamaguchi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally just posted the first chapter and I have a Calculus assignment I have to work on, but I couldn't stop until I finished this. It seems like this is just part one of the Tsukiyama story, and I'm kind of hooked, so I'll probably have a chapter three with the rest of their story up in no time, and after that, of course, it's Yachi's turn.
> 
> I really hope anyone who reads this enjoys it and you guys are just as excited for the rest of the story as I am.


	3. It Can't be True

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yachi comes to Tadashi with good news and he wants so badly to believe her, but he can't. He's been accustomed to bad news for too long.

“He- he said that?”  
Yachi asked Tadashi to fill up water bottles with her as soon as possible after practice started. It had only been about fifteen minutes, but she felt like she was seconds away from exploding. She found it hard to read Tsukishima, and he certainly wasn’t always up front with his emotions, but she could only see one reason for him to bring up Tadashi’s crush like that. She was certain it had been what they’d hoped. Jealousy.  
“You should have seen his face when he said it, Tadashi,” she couldn’t help grinning for her friend, “He likes you.”

Tadashi’s brain was short-circuiting. It couldn’t be true. Yachi was making it up. But he knew Yachi well enough at this point to know she wouldn’t lie to him to make him feel better. If she was saying Tsukki liked him, that meant she had a reasonable cause to believe that was true, and she was generally right about these kinds of things.  
“Well, what if,” Tadashi thought there must be some other explanation, “What if he just thought it was funny?”

Yachi watched in disbelief. A week ago Tadashi had given her a five minute explanation about how the way Tsukishima’s eye twitched when they’d said goodbye was a clear indication he was struggling with his feelings and close to confessing. Now she was telling him he’d intentionally tried to make her feel jealous less than fifteen minutes ago and apparently that was just a coincidence.

“Is he really such a bad friend that he would try and start a fight between us just for laughs? I mean, he thinks we’re together, that had to be his intention.”  
“We don’t know that,” Tadashi argued, “Maybe he just thought it would strengthen our relationship. Maybe he was worried I was keeping it from you and being a bad boyfriend.”  
“He would’ve talked to you if that was it,” Yachi urged, “Look, I understand you don’t want to get your heart broken, but I’m being 100% serious when I say I think you have a chance. You should try and talk to him. At least tell him we’re not actually together.”

Tadashi still didn’t believe Tsukki liked him, but if Yachi said he should talk to him, “Can I?”  
Yachi cringed at the idea that the second person in the world to know her deepest, darkest, secret would be _Tsukishima Kei_ , but Tadashi deserved to have this conversation.  
“I mean, if you can avoid telling him, like, the reason, I would appreciate that,” Yachi sighed, “But yeah, you should tell him the truth.”

As they walked back to the gym, arms full of water bottles, Tadashi considered what Yachi had told him. He tried a couple times to come up with things she might not have considered, but everytime he opened his mouth she just shot him a look that said “nice try”. So, she was convinced. He hadn’t even known she thought it was possible, but now she was the one telling him it was true. Sure, he talked about it all the time, but the idea that Tsukki could actually like him? What? Would they, like, date?

It stressed him out to think about it, and there was no reason he should think about it at all. Yachi was wrong, Tsukki didn’t like him, this was all just a big misunderstanding. He had probably poisoned Yachi’s mind with all his delusions. He was going to walk into that gym and Tsukki was going to come right up to him and complain about Hinata or Kageyama as normal, like nothing had changed. He didn’t know why Tsukishima had said that to Yachi, but he knew he probably had some explanation, and if Tadashi brought it up Tsukki would probably think he was crazy.

But he stepped into the gym and Tsukki didn’t talk to him. He didn’t talk to him for the entire practice. It was almost like he was mad at Tadashi, but it couldn’t be that. What could he have to be mad about? Was it guilt then? He shouldn’t think about it too much. Yachi was right, not about his feelings, obviously, but about the fact that he should talk to him. He had to know what was really happening so he could stop imagining stupid things.

He asked Tsukki to walk home with him after practice, and he agreed. That was a good sign that he wasn’t angry at him, but still, it felt weird. They left the school and the conversation didn’t flow the way it normally did. Tadashi tried a couple times, “We have a lot of homework this week”, “That presentation was so bad, right?”, things that would normally get them talking, but Tsukki wouldn’t give. Finally he sighed. He just had to do it.

“Yachi told me what you said to her before practice,” he admitted, not that Tsukki wasn’t already well aware.  
Tsukki looked over at him with a slightly bowed head, like a dog that was caught chewing on its owner’s socks. Tadashi had never seen him look like that before. Did he really feel that bad?  
“Why did you bring that up?” Tadashi was surprised at the pain in his voice when he said it.  
He’d been focused on convincing himself it wasn’t true, that even after all this Tsukki didn’t like him, that he hadn’t been able to think about how much it would hurt when the moment finally came that it would be confirmed. When he’d have to say goodbye to Pining Tsukki and face reality. He’d tried not to get his hopes up, but they were up, and it was going to break his heart to hear Tsukki say nothing had changed since middle school.

“I’m sorry,” was all Tsukki muttered.  
What the hell did that mean? Tadashi waited for him to explain further, but Tsukki had resigned himself to silence again. Apparently “I’m sorry” was all he wanted to say now.  
“Why?” Yamaguchi repeated.  
He had to try and talk as little as possible, because his heart was pounding and his throat was tightening. If he tried to complete a sentence he might end up crying, which would definitely not make this whole thing any better.

“I just,” Tsukki looked like it was an effort just to say the words, “I don’t know why she has to talk to me about that kind of stuff.”  
He looked uncomfortable, kind of nervous, almost the way he might look if he really did have feelings for Tadashi. But he didn’t. Tadashi had to repeat that on loop. It was already going to hurt so much to get rejected again, and he didn’t want to think how much it would hurt if he was expecting something else.

“What stuff?”  
Tsukki looked at him like he didn’t want to answer, like it would be embarrassing. It made Tadashi furious. He didn’t want to be asking these questions either. He wanted to grab Tsukki and tell him to answer the original question. It wasn’t that hard. Why had he talked to Yachi about that? Why had he decided today was the day to bring up something that happened almost a year ago? Why had he decided the girl who, as far as he knew, was dating Tadashi now, was the person to talk about it today? Why? Because Tadashi knew it couldn’t be the reason he thought it was.

“Like, relationship stuff,” Tsukishima admitted, “Stuff about you.”  
Tadashi couldn’t do this. It sounded way too much like a confession. He needed this to all be over before his heart exploded. It was already pounding so hard he thought it was probably carving a cavity in his chest. He didn’t want to ask it, he knew the embarrassment from being wrong would be unbearable, but he couldn’t deal with shyboy Tsukki anymore. He was ready to just be rejected already.  
“Tsukki, do you like me?”

* * *

How long had Tadashi been obsessed with Tsukishima? How long had they known each other? They were essentially the same question. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, just your standard childhood unrequited love. Tsukki seemed like the coolest person Yamaguchi had ever met, and he didn’t seem to hate him as much as he hated everyone else. That was enough for Tadashi to fall in love. He never really _longed_ for Tsukki or anything. He was happy with the relationship they had. 

If anything he was happy to have this unrequited love when he was young. He felt like it made him interesting. He felt it gave him all the fun parts of being in love without the ordeal of having to actually be in a relationship. He got to sing along to love songs and have an image in his mind, he got to embarrassedly say “no one” when people asked who he liked, he got to feel his heart flutter when Tsukishima looked at him. It was fun to have a crush, and he didn’t need it to be anything more.

He hadn’t ever imagined telling Tsukki about these feelings, even if he ever imagined them together it was normally in a completely different universe or way in the future when they were in university or something. He’d hadn’t been concerned about whether Tsukki felt the same, he didn’t need to if all he wanted was to stare at him and daydream during class. He’d sometimes wonder what his reaction would be if he confessed, but in the same way you wonder what your parents reaction would be if you came home from school with a shaved head, it was just a fun thought experiment. He never once considered the fact that Tsukki could actually find out.

They were in third year of middle school when Tadashi started to notice eyes following them as they walked through the hall. He thought he was imagining it at first. Tsukki didn’t notice, he never noticed things like that, but as the weeks went by Tadashi became more sure of himself. There were definitely people watching them. Then, for a week in November, Tsukishima was home sick with the flu. Tsukki got really sick like this at least once a year, and when he did Tadashi was always shocked with how alone he really was, but this time was slightly different. The second day Tsukki didn’t come to school the other boys in their class seemed like they’d been waiting to talk to Tadashi.

“Hey, Yamaguchi,” a boy Tadashi had never talked to before greeted him that day after the first period had ended, “Is Tsukishima not coming today either?”  
Tadashi was confused, but he’d been dreading the loneliness of school without his friend, so he was happy someone was talking to him.  
He shook his head, “He’s still sick.”  
“Ah, that must suck,” the boy took a seat close to Tadashi’s desk, “You guys are really close right?”  
Tadashi noticed more kids hesitantly moving towards them, as if invested in the conversation. He couldn’t imagine why, no one ever seemed to care about him and Tsukki, and even if they did this conversation was pretty ordinary, wasn’t it?  
“Uh, yeah, we’ve been close since elementary. He’s like my only friend,” Tadashi laughed nervously.  
The boy matched his laugh, but he seemed to be watching him very closely. It made Tadashi uncomfortable. Even Tsukishima rarely looked him in the eyes, but he didn’t know this guy at all. Why were they locked in an awkward staring contest?  
“You really _love_ him I guess,” the guy probed.  
Tadashi didn’t like his tone, but he didn’t know what was going on. Of course he loved Tsukishima, he was his best friend in the world, but when he nodded he instantly regretted it. The boy looked over to the other kids who were watching from around the classroom. They all started to giggle.  
“So you admit it,” he sneered, “You’re in love with Tsukishima?”  
Tadashi had felt his heart drop.  
“What, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” he stammered.  
“But you do, don’t you,” the boy continued, “You have a crush on him.”

Yamaguchi was panicking. He’d never even considered other people noticing his feelings. He’d been comfortable in the fact that Tsukishima was oblivious, because Tsukki couldn’t read emotions to save his life, and he’d figured he was basically invisible to the rest of his classmates. He’d never imagined they would pay enough attention to him to know how he felt. He must have been more obvious about it than he thought.  
“No way,” Tadashi turned his head to the voice, but it didn’t matter who said it, every eye in the classroom was on him, “He’s not denying it!”  
“What? No-”  
“Look how red he is,” a girl giggled, “He’s totally in love!”  
Tadashi buried his face in his arms on his desk. Of course he was red, the entire class was looking at him. Laughing at him. Was he supposed to be ok with that? His heart was beating so quickly it could be thought of as one continuous sound. He could hear everyone in the classroom talking about him and laughing. He didn’t know what to do.  
Suddenly he sat up, the thought hitting him. The thought that Tsukishima still didn’t know.  
“Please don’t say anything to him,” he didn’t think about what that implied.  
“So it’s true!”  
The class erupted in another wave of noise and Tadashi found himself standing up from his desk to make his voice carry. He had to defend himself. Still, no one was listening. Finally, the teacher stepped back into the room with the cup of coffee she’s brewed in the staffroom.  
“What’s all this about,” she asked.  
The students all returned to their desks, their laughter dying down to suppressed giggles.  
“Is no one going to tell me?” the teacher joked, “Well, as long as you all can focus on class instead of whatever excitement I just missed.”  
The class giggled at her comment, but she started the lecture and Tadashi never got a chance to explain himself.

He talked to as many people as possible that day and the next one, trying to convince them it wasn’t true and not to tell Tsukki when he returned, but it was more or less unsuccessful. A few people were sympathetic, but that couldn’t compete with the overwhelming tide of people who couldn’t care less. Still, Tsukishima was oblivious, and he never talked to anyone in school besides Tadashi. Maybe he wouldn’t hear the rumour. That was a nice thought.

He heard about before first period had ended on the first day he came back to school. Tadashi didn’t know what to say. It was so strange and embarrassing. He’d never planned for Tsukki to find out about his feelings, especially not in this way. He didn’t even know how to start a conversation, and it seemed Tsukki didn’t either, because a conversation never started. Tadashi attempted to talk to him once on the first day, after hours of awkwardness.  
“Tsukki it’s not true.”  
But Tsukishima didn’t even look at him. 

Yamaguchi wouldn’t say he was _good_ at reading Tsukki’s emotions, but it was something he could do, which was more than most people could say. That week however, he couldn’t even begin to understand what his friend was thinking. It wasn’t even his normal, almost indistinguishable frowns, his face was entirely blank. It didn’t matter if Tadashi could tell when he was being sarcastic or sincere because Tsukishima didn’t even talk. The days passed like centuries and Tadashi had never felt more alone. 

Tadashi tried texted him, then double, triple, quadruple texting, but the read receipts were the closest thing he got to a response. Finally, after five days of absolute icy silence, Tadashi cornered Tsukki after school, determined to recover the only friendship he’d ever had. He talked for probably five minutes without a breath. Desperately explaining how he had no idea why the rumour started, which was a lie, and how much he just wanted to be friends again, which was true. Tsukishima just watched him ramble with the same expressionless face he’d worn all week. He waited a couple seconds after Tadashi finished his rant before he spoke.  
“Can I go now?”  
They were the first words Tsukki had said to Tadashi since the morning he’d come back to school, but they just made it worse. Tadashi wished he’d never brought it up. He was certain at that point, he’d lost his only friend. But, just as Tasahi accepted his gruesome fate, things started to go back to normal again.

The next morning Tadashi was shocked to see Tsukishima raise his head when he entered the classroom. He even nodded at him in greeting, he even looked in his eyes. Tadashi tried not to be obvious about how excited he was to see such a simple gesture, but he felt relieved. He didn’t care that Tsukishima had rejected his feelings as long as they were still friends.

From that point on Tadashi was more conscious of his feelings. Before they had just felt like harmless fun, but he realised after those rumours nearly tore he and Tsukki’s friendship apart, that even a simple crush could put everything at risk. He tried ever since then to suppress his feelings, to just be grateful for the friendship they had. All he wanted was to keep things the same as they’d always been.

So what was he doing now?

* * *

When Tadashi asked Tsukki if he liked him, he could already hear the answer in his mind.  
“No.”  
That was if he was lucky. If he was being realistic, he expected much worse. Laughter was up there as one of the worst possibilities. Outright disgust was definitely somewhere near the top. The point was, he wasn’t expecting anything short of rejection, but seconds had passed now since he asked the question and Tsukki had yet to say anything.

He’d been avoiding looking at Tsukki for two reasons. One, because he was scared of what expression he might be making, and two, because he didn’t want Tsukki to see him cry when he heard the rejection. Now, when more than enough time had passed for Tsukishima to have answered, Tadashi knew he had no choice. He looked up hesitantly, already preparing himself to turn away as quickly as possible if he felt tears coming up, but he never would have expected what he saw.

Tsukishima Kei, the most stoic, emotionless person he’d ever met, was… blushing?

It was unmistakable. Tsukki’s pale features made the red in his face show so brightly it looked like he was glowing. Tadashi had seen him look slightly flustered before, when people he respected complimented him, or in very awkward situations, but he’d never seen him turn red like this. His heart couldn’t have possibly beat any harder than it had already been beating, but he suddenly felt butterflies in his stomach too. He stared at his friend in awe. It didn’t even look like Tsukishima. He looked like something out of his fantasies. _Pining Tsukki_.

He had to look away, he was feeling too many emotions all at once. Tsukishima had been beet red, but Tadashi was getting close to his level too. There was no way. This wasn’t happening. He turned his head just a fraction of an inch to check that he hadn’t just imagined the whole thing, but Tsukki was still there, and he was still red. 

“You,” Tadashi tried to speak, but his brain couldn’t come up with words, “like…”  
That was the closest he would come to a sentence.  
“I’m gonna go,” Tsukki announced.  
When Tadashi turned to look at him again Tsukki had already started to walk away. He wasn’t technically running, but he had long legs so when he needed to he could walk insanely fast.  
“Wait, Tsukki!” Tadashi called.  
Tsukishima pretended not to hear him, eyes still focused ahead of him as he moved down the road. Tadashi’s brain still could barely form a thought, but he knew he couldn’t let him leave.  
“Tsukki!” he repeated as he started to follow him.  
Tsukishima picked up his pace when he realised Tadashi was coming after him, causing Yamaguchi to go faster, then Tsukki again, until they had basically broken out into a high speed chase. It was fair to say in normal circumstances Tsukishima was the faster of the two, and he had a head start, but in that moment Tadashi would do anything to make sure Tsukki didn’t get away. He couldn’t let him leave thinking he’d been rejected, thinking it was unrequited love. Not when all Tadashi did was love him.

When Tadashi finally caught him, he wrapped Tsukki in his arms. Holding onto him tightly, head pressed into his back. He couldn’t believe what he was experiencing. He finally had Tsukishima. He finally had his love. He wasn’t going to let go any time soon.

“I- I like you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fully considered just letting Tsukishima run off and not resolve anything until chapter 4, but I thought that would be mean.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed! Idk when the next chapter will be out but I miss Yachi and want to write her some more so hopefully I'll have time in the next few days.


	4. My Boyfriend's Boyfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an unexpected confession, Tadashi and Tsukishima are suddenly in new-relationship bliss. Yachi is proud of her friend and happy for both of them, but as she watches the two of them grow deeper in love, she can't help but feel a little lonely.

Yachi arrived at Yamaguchi’s house, arguably, way too early that morning. He’d agreed to walk to school with her, but his house was, maximum, fifteen minutes from school, and she was there an hour before school started. She couldn’t help it though, she was excited! She had to know what had happened the day before. She’d been overly excited ever since that conversation with Tsukishima, when she realised he had feelings for her friend, and when she talked to Tadashi and he agreed to have the conversation, she’d started imagining all kinds of possible futures. 

When the two boys left together after practice, she’d waited exactly ten minutes to text Tadashi for updates. That was long enough to confess right? But half an hour passed, then an hour, and no response. She was getting so restless, she had to know what was happening. She sent a second text, just to confirm that he had received the first one, but that one too, no response. She was freaking out. She didn’t want to think it, but what if he’d been rejected? She’d been so adamant that Tsukishima liked him, she’d been sure, but what if she was wrong? Tadashi would never forgive her. It was three hours after practice finished when she finally got a text

**Tadashi  
-Oh, lol I just checked my messages.  
-I did it! And he didn’t reject me!  
-I have a bf now I guess 0_o**

Yachi read the texts three times to make sure she had interpreted them correctly. Tadashi confessed? And Tsukki accepted? Oh my god, this was amazing! She was so proud. She texted back in a hurry.

**Yachi  
-Ohmygodohmygodohmygod  
-NO WAY!!!!  
-I’m so proud of you!!!  
-You have to tell me everything >_<  
-Can you talk on the phone now?**

**Tadashi  
-Sorry, not tonight.  
-Come to my house tomorrow and I’ll tell you everything on the walk to school.**

She felt calmer knowing it had gone well and they were together, but she still needed to hear the whole story. She was embarrassed at how early she arrived at Tadashi’s. She considered just standing outside for like half an hour so she was marginally less early, but it was 7:30 am in October, so it was really cold. She texted him from the street, afraid she would have to meet his parents if she knocked at the door.

**Yachi  
-I’m here**

Tadashi opened the door ten seconds later, looking for her.  
“Good morning!” she waved over his front gate.  
“Why are you here so early?”  
“I couldn’t help it! You have to tell me everything.”  
Tadashi blushed and started grinning. Yachi already knew she was going to enjoy this story.  
“Come in,” Tadashi called from the door, “My parents already left for work, you can have breakfast with me.”

Tadashi’s house was nice, and very warm, though it reminded Yachi of her house in just how empty it felt. She wondered if he was home alone as often as she was. She followed him to the kitchen and took a set at the table while he grabbed her some food and offered to take her jacket. It was all very nice, but she was feeling incredibly restless. When he finally sat down across from her she waited for him to start talking, but he just started eating his omelette.  
“So,” she finally urged, “Aren’t you going to tell me what happened since I left you? Aren’t you going to tell me about your _boyfriend_?”

Tadashi blushed and looked like he was going to choke on his food for a second, but he finally swallowed and a big smile was all that was left. He started to tell her what had happened. How Tsukki had been so awkward and uncomfortable at first, how Tadashi had been sure he would get his heart crushed, how he finally just asked the question. She nearly screamed when he told her how Tsukki had run away and how he’d had to chase him, how he’d confessed.  
“No!” she gasped, “Tadashi you did it! I can’t believe it! What did he say?”  
“Um, he was really confused at first,” Tadashi rubbed his neck with embarrassment, “He still thought you and I were dating, but when I explained everything… Well, then he got really embarrassed. He told me to tell you he’s sorry he was so rude.”  
“I don’t care what he told you to tell me!” Yachi barked, maybe she should just say thank you, but, “I want to hear what he told you! Did he confess too?”  
Tadashi’s blush grew deeper and he looked down at his plate, “He did.”

Yachi squealed in excitement. She’d only been friends with Tadashi for a couple of months, but he was one of the best friends she’d ever had, and she knew how much Tsukishima meant to him. She was so happy that he’d finally got what he’d been waiting for.  
“He told me,” Tadashi’s voice was low and he continued to avert his gaze, “He told me he’s liked me since middle school, and he wasn’t mad at me when the rumour spread, just really embarrassed. He said he wasn’t sure if it was true, and he said if he had talked to me right after hearing that it-” he paused to smile, “it would have been too obvious that he liked me too.”  
“No way,” Yachi was on the edge of her seat. They’d been talking for ten minutes and she still hadn’t had a bite of her food, she was too wrapped up in the conversation, “So did you kiss?”  
Tadashi lowered his head even more so Yachi could barely even see his eyes. He didn’t answer, he just nodded.  
“Oh my god!” Yachi stood up from her chair, “I can’t believe it! That’s amazing! And you were all, ‘he doesn’t like me’, ‘my life’s so miserable’, ‘I’m going to die alone’.”  
“I didn’t know!” Tadashi defended himself, “How could I have known? Plus I don’t think I ever said I was going to die alone.”  
“Oh you totally did, you were so ‘oh, boo-hoo, poor me’, when in reality I should be jealous! I still can’t believe you kissed him!”  
“Be quiet!” Tadashi cried.  
“Why? I thought you said no one’s home?”  
“Well, no one’s home, but it’s just-”  
“Tadashi kissed Tsukki! Tadashi kissed Tsukki! He’s got a boyfrie-”  
Tadashi had covered her mouth, blushing to the point that Yachi thought she could probably use his face as a heater. Maybe she should stop teasing him. It was just so cute. Her best friend, her fake boyfriend, had a boyfriend. A thought occurred to her.

“Wait, does that mean we should stop fake-dating?”  
“Huh? I don’t think so,” Tadashi returned to his seat to continue his breakfast, “If anything it’s another reason to keep doing it. I seriously doubt Tsukishima wants to date publicly.”  
“You doubt it? Weren’t you with him for like three hours yesterday? You didn’t talk about that?”  
Tadashi looked embarrassed again, “No…”  
Yachi grinned, “Ahh, you were too busy kissing?”  
“Hitoka-chan!”

* * *

To be honest, Yachi hadn’t been very fond of Tsukishima before then. She’d tried to see the qualities Yamaguchi saw in him, but she mostly just found him irritating. Now, though, seeing the way he looked at Tadashi when he thought no one was looking, seeing him laugh at his jokes, she started to warm up to him a little. He was also a lot nicer to her now that he knew not only was she not taking Tadashi away from him, but she was one of the reasons they’d gotten together, and the reason they could date without risk of people finding out.

She also quickly learned that she could get away with teasing him a fair bit. He sometimes got defensive, but then Tadashi would frown and say something about how he wished the two of them would get along and Tsukishima would decide it didn’t bother him anymore. Yachi was on guard, as Tadashi’s only friend that wasn’t Tsukishima, she was the only one who could play the role of boyfriend patrol, and she knew if they ever had any fights she would be so definitively on Tadashi’s side it would probably be unreasonable, but as far as she could tell Tsukishima was an amazing boyfriend. 

Yamaguchi hadn’t been unhappy before, by any standard, but now he was always giddy. Tsukishima could make him laugh with the smallest look, and blush with even less, and it made Yachi so happy to see. It meant she saw Tadashi slightly less, their fake dates were now in competition with real dates, and it meant Tadashi giving her advice on her love life made her a little irrationally angry, and it made her really annoyed when she would say something about Kiyoko-san not liking her back and he would try to relate, but all of that paled in comparison to how happy she was to see him in what seemed like, from her perspective, a great relationship.

It was a great relationship from Tadashi’s perspective too, though he may be biased. He’d always loved Tsukki more than anything, but ever since they got together just seeing his face made him grin to the point where at the end of the school day his cheeks were often aching. They weren’t dating publicly, and he could tell no one other than Yachi had noticed the differences in their relationship, but to him they were so clear. Tsukishima tried to tease him the way he used to, but Tadashi could tell he was having a harder time coming up with things to tease him about. Sometimes when they were talking they’d just catch each other’s eyes and it would take them like twenty seconds to realise they’d both stopped talking.

When they were alone together Tsukishima would always insist on holding his hand, or his waist, or putting his arm around his shoulder, no matter what they were doing. It was to the point where Tadashi was more aware of when they weren’t touching than when they were. He’d been friends with Tsukishima for so long, and he’d had a crush on him that whole time, so he’d worried that it would feel weird to be with him for real, but it didn’t. It just felt good. After the awkwardness on the first day, with Tadashi having to explain the whole fake relationship thing and them both taking a little too long to really internalise the fact that the other one liked them, everything just became more and more natural.

Before the first week had even passed since they’d started dating Tadashi knew he was entirely head-over-heels in love. Obviously, Tsukishima felt the same way, because it was halfway through the second week of dating when they both said ‘I love you’ for the first time. Since that day they couldn’t stop saying it. Even in school when there were people everywhere Tsukishima would sometimes catch Tadashi’s eye and mouth it to him. Every time he did this Tadashi would blush and look around in a panic, making sure no one saw, and that made Tsukishima laugh. Still, it was more romantic than Tadashi would have ever thought Tsukki could be. Tadashi learned since they’d started dating he should never underestimate his boyfriend.

“He’s just,” Tadashi told Yachi, “how can he be so perfect?”  
It was close to three weeks since he’d started dating Tsukishima and he was staying the night at Yachi’s, who was home alone while her mom was on a business trip. Tadashi thought the whole situation was about as ridiculous as a situation could be. He had told his parents he was sleeping at Tsukishima’s, but he was secretly at his girlfriends, but she was secretly not his girlfriend, they were secretly just friends, and he and Tsukki were secretly not just friends, they were the ones that were secretly dating. In any case, it was Tsukki’s house that he shouldn’t be allowed to sleep at, and he and Yachi were truly just having a wholesome sleepover.

“Tadashi I got to be honest,” Yachi confessed, “I’m really jealous.”  
Tadashi laughed.  
“I was happy for you for the first bit, but I’m starting to get over it,” she teased, “You guys are just too in love, it’s making me feel so hopelessly single.”  
“Come on Hitoka-chan, you’re not doing that bad,” Tadashi tried, “I saw you and Kiyoko-san laughing pretty hard during practice. What was that about?”  
Yachi rolled her eyes, the way all single people do when their friends in happy relationships try to make them feel better about their love lives.  
“That was nothing,” she insisted, “She was telling me about something funny that happened in her class,” she paused for a second before adding, “Her laugh really is so cute, though.”  
“See,” Tadashi grinned, “I have no idea whether her laugh is cute or not, I’ve never made her laugh once.”  
Yachi knew what he was doing, but she decided was going to let him get away with it, “Yeah, well, she only really laughs with her close friends.”  
Tadashi poked her on the shoulder, “I told you! You guys are so much closer now than when you first joined the team.”  
“Still doesn’t mean she likes me,” Yachi argued, “She just thinks of me as her underclassman.”  
Tadashi looked at her with lowered eyelids, he'd had this argument one too many times.  
"Whatever, I'm not going to feel guilty talking about Tsukki."  
Yachi laughed, "You shouldn't, I'm sorry. I was just teasing."

* * *

She really was just joking around that time, but it was a little strange to Yachi. When they'd first become friends, they had talked like both of their crushes were equally unlikely to be reciprocated, but it was now obvious that had never been true. She was excited about how much Kiyoko talked to her these days, she always stopped to say hi when they passed each other in the halls, and when they had things to do for the volleyball club there were no more long, awkward silences, but Yachi had no expectation that they were anything more than friends, or that they ever would be.

Shimizu was just so completely out of her league. Nearly every boy in their school had a crush on her, even Tadashi had admitted he thought she was pretty in a not-just-objective kind of way. Even if by some miracle she liked girls, Yachi doubted she would be first on her list. She was two years younger, awkward as hell, and, though her mom said she was cute, in comparison with Kiyoko, she was aggressively average-looking. Now that Tadashi actually had a boyfriend, Yachi realised maybe she should try and look for someone more on her level. Someone she might be able to actually date.

When she thought about it, there was one girl Yachi knew that she might actually have a chance with. Her name was Sudou Rinko, she was a second year on the girls volleyball team and Yachi’d heard she was in class with Ennoshita. There were a couple rumours floating around that she’d had a girlfriend in middle school, and Yachi had run into her a couple times randomly, to the point where they said hello in the halls and things. Maybe if she played her cards right she might be able to get into a relationship like Tadashi and Tsukki’s, though she had no idea how to even approach something like that.

"So I'm thinking maybe I'll make some excuse to go to Ennoshita's class," she explained to Tadashi, "Maybe steal his water bottle and say he forgot it or something."  
Tadashi looked uncomfortable.  
"I don't understand, do you like this girl?"  
"Huh?" Yachi was confused on what part he missed, "I mean, I don't really know her yet, but she's pretty."  
"I guess I just," Tadashi's tone was filled with concern, "what about Shimizu-senpai?"  
Yachi felt an ache in her chest. She guessed it made sense Tadashi would say that, he hadn’t really been updated on the abrupt change in plans, but she was done pretending Kiyoko-san would ever see her in that way, so she wished they both could just pretend she’d never had that silly crush.

“Yeah, well Sudou-senpai might actually like girls,” Yachi tried to brush off the comment, “She might actually like me.”  
“Don’t say it like that,” Tadashi urged.  
It was in that moment that Yachi watched the door open behind Tadashi, and Shimizu-senpai walked into the club room where the two of them had been talking.  
Tadashi however, didn’t seem to notice, “you never know, Kiyoko-san could too!”

“I could what, Yamaguchi-kun?”  
Yachi’s face burned as she watched Kiyoko adjust her glasses, staring at Tadashi with an unimpressed expression. Tadashi looked at his friend in a panic, trying to come up with some explanation. Yachi just stared back, equally stressed.  
“Are you two alright?” Kiyoko’s eyes bounced between the two of them, “Ah, did I interrupt something?”

This made Yachi blush even more, “No, no it wasn’t like that! I swear!”  
“We were just talking,” Tadashi explained, voice a couple decibels too high to be perceived in any way as casual.  
“About what?” the third-year mused, grabbing the first aid kit she had come to the room looking for before looking back at the fake couple, “I’d say it’s none of my business, but unless I’m mistaken I did hear my name.”  
The two first years exchanged one final desperate look, but neither one of them could come up with a way out of this.  
“I’m sorry Shimizu-senpai,” was all Yamaguchi could think to say, “I promise it wasn’t anything bad though.”

Kiyoko looked between the two of them one final time, before smiling gracefully.  
“Alright, I trust you,” she said sweetly, opening the door to step out, “Come back to the gym soon, though. Yamaguchi still has to practice.”  
When she left, the two friends stood perfectly still for a couple seconds, and then suddenly Yachi sat down on the bench, covering her bright red face in her hands. Tadashi put a hand on her shoulder.  
“You alright?”  
Yachi looked up at him with sad eyes.  
“Why does she have to be so perfect?”

* * *

Yachi wanted to get over Kiyoko. She wanted to _be_ over Kiyoko. She’d gotten over crushes in the past. So many crushes! In middle school, even in the first few months of high school before she’d met Kiyoko, she’d had a new crush every week. Sometimes she was more dramatic about them then others, but at the end of the day none of them were really all that significant. She’d thought her crush on Kiyoko was another one of those. She’d thought she could just move on to the next one, but Kiyoko seemed to have a bigger stake in her heart than she’d originally expected.

Still, she tried to move forward with the Sudou plan. She dropped by Ennoshita’s class with some shirt she’d found in the club room and asked if it was his. He said it wasn’t, which she already knew. Sudou waved Yachi over when she saw her in the class and they talked for a couple minutes, but it just felt off. Yachi was calm and collected around Yamaguchi, but she had never really been around anyone else and _never_ around girls. Holding a conversation with a girl as pretty as Sudou-senpai would normally leave Yachi in a blushing, stuttering mess, but for some reason she didn’t feel anything. 

On Yachi’s walk back to her own classroom, she felt hopelessly embarrassed. Not because of anything that had happened, but she’d orchestrated a whole plan to talk to a girl who she didn’t even like. Why did she do that? Was she so hopelessly lonely that she had to make up lies just to be in the same room as someone, just because she’d heard one rumour she might be a lesbian? She felt pathetic. She felt so alone.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder.  
“Hey, keep your head up,” Kiyoko’s soft voice came from in front of her, “You’re going to walk into a wall.”  
Yachi felt her heart pound. Ahh, this was the feeling. The one that was missing when she talked to Sudou-san.  
She faked a laugh, “Sorry Kiyoko-san, lost in thought I guess.”  
“Ok,” Kiyoko smiled warmly, “well, get to class safely.”  
Yachi watched as Kiyoko walked off, her heart still fluttering, but in the ten seconds that she watched her senpai walk alone, she saw two separate boys try to approach her. That was the other feeling. The one that had caused her to approach Sudou-san in the first place. God, could her life be any more pathetic?

She passed Tsukishima and Yamaguchi’s classroom on the way to her own, like she always did. The two boys were inside, at their desks, like they always were. She paused for a second to watch them. See the way they smiled brightly as they spoke, the way they talked to each other so easily. They didn’t even notice her watching, but she would have never expected them to. When they were together they were the only two people on the planet. The only people that mattered at least. To Yamaguchi the world began and ended with Tsukishima, but the most amazing thing was, Tsukishima felt the same way. 

With a heavy sigh, she walked back to class five. She couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before she had something like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry Yachi! Your time is coming soon! Hold in there!
> 
> Thanks for reading! You must be enjoying if you got this far, so thanks so much and I hope you'll continue to read the rest of the chapters as I post them.


	5. The Perfect Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shimizu Kiyoko is the perfect girl. She's beautiful and kind and talented. She'd too good for Yachi, but Tadashi seems to think Yachi has more of a chance than she thinks, and maybe he's right.
> 
> TW: moments of homophobia

Yachi had, essentially, no interest in volleyball. When Hinata and Kageyama did their crazy spikes she liked to watch and cheer, and the more she learned everything she did start to find interest in the official matches, but during the daily after school practices when the boys just spiked and spiked and spiked, then received and received, then played some boring endless practice match with the same three rotations, she often found herself thinking this was just about the most boring after school activity she could have chosen. None of that mattered though. Volleyball could be the most thrilling thing in the world or the sports equivalent of watching paint dry and Yachi would still be happy to spend every second of her day in that gym as long as Kiyoko was there.

She’d had the distinct thought, on more than one occasion, that if there was a TV channel that just showed Kiyoko walking around all day it would be the only thing Yachi would watch. Could anyone blame her? Kiyoko was a literal goddess. If you put a gun to Yachi’s head and asked her to name a single flaw in Kiyoko, she would consider herself already dead. Even the things few, _very few_ , things that differentiated the third year from Aphrodite herself, Yachi felt only served to make her more unique, more approachable, more perfect. 

Shimizu-senpai was certainly the most beautiful of all Yachi’s past crushes, so she guessed it made sense that this crush was the strongest, the hardest to get over. 

“I don’t see why it’s such a bad thing,” Tadashi told her one day during practice, “Maybe it’s your first real love. Why do you need to get over her so quickly?”  
This was always his argument. He’d been desperate to get over Tsukki a month ago, but now that they were dating he was living in some kind of candyland where every crush is the start of a beautiful love story, no one’s heart ever gets broken, and butterflies piss rainbows. She looked at him in disapproval.  
“She doesn’t like me back that’s why.”  
“I keep telling you; you don’t know that!”  
“Are you joking, Tadashi? She’s literally the prettiest girl in school. She rejects like ten love confessions a week, and I’m not trying to contribute to those numbers.”  
“Oh come on,” Tadashi begged, “There’s no way of knowing unless you ask. Plus, what’s the worst that could happen?”  
Yachi looked pointedly across the gym, where Tanaka and Nishinoya were trying desperately to talk to Kiyoko. She slowly looked the two of them up and down before turning away coldly and continuing on with what she had been doing. Yachi wouldn’t be able to bear Kiyoko-san treating her like that. It would rip her tiny heart to shreds.

“What are you talking about,” Tsukishima had come up behind the bench where they were sitting and rested his hand on Tadashi’s shoulder.  
“Tsukki!” Tadashi smiled the way he always did when he saw Tsukishima, “You’re just in time, Hitoka’s being a coward.”  
“I’m not a coward,” Yachi argued, a little too loudly she realised, after Asahi and Kageyama both turned their heads to see what had happened.  
“I’m not a coward,” She repeated slightly quieter, “I just don’t think I should embarrass myself by confessing to someone who obviously doesn’t like me.”  
“How do you know she doesn’t like you?” Tsukishima asked.  
Yachi glared at the two boys in succession.  
“You guys are ridiculous,” Yachi griped, “Just because you’re in love doesn’t mean everyone else is.”  
Tsukishima faked a cough, “Coward.”  
He and Tadashi laughed like it was the funniest joke ever made, and Yachi just rolled her eyes. Of course they didn’t understand. She didn’t expect them to.

* * *

Yachi wished her relationship was in any way equivalent to Tsukki and Yamaguchi’s, but it wasn’t. They had been friends for years, she and Kiyoko had just met. They were each other’s closest friends, she knew basically nothing about Kiyoko. They were in love, she was just a hopeless loser in love with someone who would never feel the same way about her. She still went to Tadashi for advice, she had to, he was her only friend who knew about the crush, but she rarely took anything he said seriously. He just didn’t understand the situation she was in.

The weeks went by and Yamaguchi continued to try and convince her she had a shot. She knew he was biased, but against her better judgement, she started to believe him. The argument that Kiyoko might not like guys because she had never had a boyfriend despite all her options, seemed weak to Yachi. Shimizu had explained to her a couple times that she was too busy to have much of a social life, and her parents didn’t allow her to date. The argument that she seemed especially fond of Yachi held some ground. She did go out of her way to make sure Yachi was eating well, doing well in school, and being treated nicely by the rest of the volleyball team, but all that could just be her acting as a good upperclassman.

The thing that made Yachi wonder if Tadashi might be onto something was actually something she hadn’t told her best friend. It was when she and Kiyoko were alone together, whether they had to prepare something for an upcoming tournament or just cleaning up the gym together when it was their turn, Kiyoko would always be asking questions about her “relationship”, and not exactly in a way that a supportive friend might.

“So, you and Yamaguchi-kun are still dating?” She asked one day as they were putting together noise-makers for the audience when they went to nationals.  
“Um, yeah,” Yachi answered, “It’s been, I guess, three months now.”  
“You aren’t tired of him yet?” Kiyoko said it like it was a joke, and maybe it was, Yachi didn’t always understand her sense of humour, but this struck her as slightly strange, “I think I would be bored after two weeks with a boy.”  
Yachi’s heart started beating, but she tried to focus on her noise-maker. Why had Kiyoko said “a boy” so explicitly? Maybe she was reaching but Yachi felt like there was something implied there.  
“Yeah, boys can be so annoying,” Yachi thought maybe she could steer the conversation without being too obvious.  
Kiyoko laughed, “True. I mean, of course I love the guys on the team, but,” she looked at Yachi in a way that seemed significant, “girls are so much better.”  
Yachi felt her heart pounding. She wished she could continue the conversation, she certainly liked where it was going, but she was too much of a mess by that point. The gay panic had set in and it was all Yachi could do to keep her hands from shaking as she finished what she was working on. She definitely didn’t have the brainpower to hold a conversation.  
“How many do we have now,” Kiyoko asked, already completely removed from the conversation they’d just had.  
Yachi tried to remind herself how to breathe as she eyed the noise-makers they’d made so far.  
“Um, seven I think,” her voice was definitely unsteady, but Kiyoko didn’t seem to notice.  
“Oh man,” she smiled at Yachi in a way that made her heart melt, “This is going to take forever.”

That conversation lived in Yachi’s head for the rest of the week. She could describe every detail of the little smile Kiyoko had flashed her. She could hear her voice like she was still there.  
“Girls are so much better.”  
It could very easily be just a harmless joke, but to Yachi it could be the last line of a romance movie. It had so much power over her. The tone she had said it in, the way her lips had moved, the emotion in her eyes, all of it.

It wasn’t much, but it was the first thing that really made Yachi consider the idea that her crush might actually be somewhat attainable. She didn’t tell Tadashi about it, she was already making too big of a deal about it and, if she was freaking out, Tadashi would be going crazy. She knew exactly what he would say if she told him, and she still wasn’t ready to confess to Shimizu. She would wait to tell Tadashi when she had some definitive proof, just like she had done with Tsukishima.

It wasn’t long before another moment came like the first one. Yachi and Kiyoko were setting up the gym one morning before practice, the boys were all off changing so they were the only ones in the gym. Yachi had been thinking about Kiyoko so much that it was stressing her out just to be in the same room as her, but she knew she had to take this chance.  
“Hey, can I ask you a question, Kiyoko-san?” Yachi started, too afraid to look Kiyoko in the eye.  
She had a plan, one she’d been working on ever since the day they’d made noise-makers. It was very detailed and she’d practiced the whole thing a million times, but now that the moment had come she was a nervous wreck.  
“Hmm?” was Kiyoko’s only response, but Yachi knew that meant to go ahead.  
“Um, Tadashi cancelled our date this weekend to hang out with Tsukishima-kun,” it wasn’t technically a lie, she was just exaggerating how much it mattered, “And, well, he’s always doing this kind of thing. What do you think I should do?”  
Kiyoko looked pissed off. Yachi felt her stomach flip, hoping she was mad at Tadashi and not her.  
“Typical,” Kiyoko scoffed, “Boys are so much trouble, I don’t know why you even put up with him, Hitoka-chan.”  
Yachi’s heart pounded as Kiyoko looked over at her. This was pretty much the best answer she could have asked for. God, she was good at this. Maybe she needed to start a business getting people’s crushes to confess, because if this worked she would be two for two.  
“You could do so much better,” was Kiyoko’s final point.  
Summoning all the courage in her body Yachi went in for the kill, “Sometimes I wish I could just date girls instead.”  
She couldn’t even look up as she said it, there were so many ways it could go wrong, but if it went right...  
Kiyoko huffed out her cute little laugh, “Definitely.”

* * *

Yachi had been able to keep the “girls are so much better” conversation from Tadashi, but not this one. She hadn’t thought it was possible, but could Kiyoko be interested in her? The rest of practice she hadn’t been able to say anything to her senpai. She could answer her direct questions while looking very adamantly at the floor, but that was the best she could manage. Her heart would burst if she tried anything more. She whispered to Tadashi that she needed to talk to him before their classes started and he’d begged for more information, but she was way too nervous to talk about any of it in the gym.

When practice ended the two of them found an empty staircase where they probably wouldn’t be overheard and Yachi filled him in on all the new information. She told him about the noise-maker night, the vague insult on the opposite gender and the conversation they’d had that day.

“I told you!” Tadashi grinned, “You were so negative, I knew she liked you!”  
“You didn’t know anything,” she snapped, “You made a lucky guess. But, yeah, I’m starting to think…”  
She blushed. She didn’t know anything for sure, but the hints were definitely pointing in the right direction. It wasn’t all a hopeless pipe dream anymore.  
“Maybe I’ll try confessing.”  
Tadashi gasped, “Yes! You have to! She’ll totally say yes and then you’ll have a girlfriend! We could go on double dates!”  
Yachi knew he was over exaggerating, knew he was being way too optimistic, but it still made her smile. She couldn’t even imagine it, her dating Shimizu-senpai. That would be like a literal dream.  
“Yeah, I don’t know, I’m really scared-”  
“Of course you are,” Tadashi interrupted, “Everyone’s scared before they confess, it’s super nerve-racking, but I promise it’ll be ok.”  
Yachi took a few seconds to consider.  
“Ok, I’ll do it.”  
“Hitoka-chan!” Tadashi's tone was that of a proud parent and he pulled her into a hug.  
“The next time I’m alone with Shimizu-senpai, I’m going to do it.”

It was a bold statement, but one Yachi was going to stick by. She wasn’t the kind of person who went back on her promises. She was still absolutely terrified, though, which meant for the next week she desperately avoided any situation in which there would be any chance she might be alone with her senpai. Tadashi didn’t help. Every day he asked when she was going to do it and what she was planning. Soon it stressed Yachi out to the point where she was avoiding two people. It wasn’t sustainable, but she had to keep it up as long as she could.

The problem was she didn’t _know_ what she was planning. The more time passed the more she became unsure of herself. Sure, it sounded like Kiyoko was hinting that she liked girls that day, but everything sounded like a hint that you like girls to a lesbian. Yachi had once convinced herself one of her friends was gay because she said she really liked Sailor Moon as a kid. Everyone really liked Sailor Moon as a kid, literally everyone. The more time passed, the more Yachi wondered if this was just that again and if she was about to make a fool of herself. 

The more she thought about it, what was more likely? Kiyoko was just complaining about teenage boys the way any straight girl might, especially one as far above every guy at the school as Shimizu, or that the hottest girl at Karasuno was secretly hinting that she had a crush on the little trainwreck, villager B, first-year girl who could barely speak in her presence because she got so nervous. It gave Yachi anxiety just to think about it, but she’d said she was going to confess, so, even if she got rejected, she would just have to do it. She was pretty sure that she was going to get rejected though.

* * *

It was a week and a half after she’d declared her intentions to Tadashi the first time Yachi found herself alone with Kiyoko with no way out. It was during an after school practice and the team had gone out for a run. Ukai had gone for a smoke and Takeda went with him, so the gym was completely empty. Not only that, but Yachi and Kiyoko weren’t even in the open gym, they were in the equipment room organizing the balls. Yachi had nowhere to run, no possible excuse, just her and her crush who she’d promised to confess to, alone in a dimly lit room.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had the chance to talk,” Kiyoko said as she placed another volleyball in the bin, “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me.”  
From the tone of her voice, Yachi felt like Kiyoko knew everything. Maybe even more than Yachi did. It was seriously intimidating.  
Yachi laughed nervously.  
“Yeah, I guess I kind of have.”  
Kiyoko smiled at her quickly, before continuing her task. The smile of someone who has absolutely no questions to ask.  
“Why?” She asked anyway, “Are you scared of me, Hitoka-chan?”  
Yachi’s heart quickened at an alarming rate, like the sound of a bouncing volleyball that’s almost stopped.  
“No, more n- nervous,” Yachi couldn’t believe what she was saying, there was no backing out now. 

Kiyoko placed the ball in her hands into the bin neatly and slowly turned to the first-year. Yachi knew she was blushing enough that Kiyoko could probably tell, even in the dark equipment room. Her senpai took a couple steps closer and Yachi had to will herself to breathe deeply. This was definitely a romantic moment. Yachi had never experienced a romantic moment before.  
“Why are you nervous?”  
Kiyoko’s tone was adorable. The kind of, _don’t be scared_ tone that Yachi would find obnoxious and condescending from anyone else, but from Kiyoko it made her feel like she was on the moon. Gently Kiyoko grabbed a stand of Yachi’s hair and laced it through her fingers. Yachi took one last breath, a noticeably shaky one, as she prepared herself to do what she had promised herself she would do.

“Kiyoko I-”  
She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Before she did, Kiyoko’s gentle fingers pushed lightly on her chin, tilting it upwards, and their lips met. Yachi’s heart stopped beating for a second, but she didn’t even have time to be freaked out. Kiyoko rarely touched Yachi, but whenever she did it was always so soft she could barely register it. This kiss was different. Kiyoko’s lips played with Yachi’s in a way that made her forget it was her first kiss. It made her forget where they were, what they were doing, it almost made her forget who she was. 

Her eyes closed on instinct and she gave herself to Kiyoko. She didn’t need to have any prior experience to know this was a good kiss, to know this was one she would remember. Hesitantly, she reached out to grab Kiyoko’s waist, but her hand didn’t seem to shock her senpai out of the mood. In fact, when she grabbed her Kiyoko reciprocated, wrapping an arm around Yachi and pulling her closer. That gave Yachi the confidence to move again, snaking an arm up Kiyoko’s back until she reached her thin neck.

Yachi felt Kiyoko smile against her lips, and it made her stomach flip, but she recovered from the smile and continued to kiss her. It lasted a total of two minutes, but if you asked Yachi she would’ve said it had been hours. It actually made her pretty nervous near the end, even though she was still wrapped up in the awe of kissing Kiyoko, she was worried the team would come back from their run and Hinata or someone else would walk in on them. She still would have continued though, if she’d had the chance. 

Kiyoko broke the kiss, but still held Yachi just as closely, so their faces were only inches away as they talked.  
“Wow,” Yachi was the first to speak, though it was only in a whisper.  
“Yeah,” Kiyoko agreed, “I wonder what your boyfriend would’ve done if he’d walked in on us.”  
It took Yachi a minute to figure out what she was saying. Kissing Kiyoko had pressed some sort of reset button on her brain and everything else had been washed away. She’d forgotten about Tadashi, about their fake relationship. She’d forgotten Kiyoko didn’t know.

“Oh,” the stress of the mistake had shocked Yachi back into the present and she broke the embrace with Kiyoko, “Oh, we’re not actually together.”  
“What?”  
It wasn’t common that Kiyoko was surprised by something, so Yachi guessed this was her surprised face, but it looked more uncomfortable than Yachi would have expected. Shouldn’t she be happy to hear the girl she’d just made out with didn’t have a boyfriend?  
“Yeah, we agreed to say we were dating,” Kiyoko’s face looked more uncomfortable with every word, “but were actually just friends. We did it so,” Yachi started to feel like maybe she was saying something wrong, Kiyoko looked vaguely upset, “So no one would find out we’re, we’re both, gay.”  
By the time Yachi got to the last word, she knew something was wrong. It came out as nothing more than a whisper. She didn’t know why, but she could tell Kiyoko didn’t want to hear it.  
“You’re,” Kiyoko looked more uncomfortable than Yachi had ever seen her, “You’re a lesbian?”

Yachi felt like she was going to be sick. She’d only come out to two people before now, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, so the homophobia she’d seen and experienced had never been directly targeted at her. She’d thought she could imagine what it would feel like though, she’d seen it happen to other people, or people indirectly insulting her by accident, but this was different. Maybe it was because it was Kiyoko, someone she respected so much, someone she was obsessed with, potentially in love with, but hearing someone call her a lesbian in such a disgusted tone made Yachi feel like shit. It made her understand why people thought the word was dirty.

Still, Yachi forced herself to breathe deeply. Maybe she was just insecure again, just having a panic attack. Maybe everything wasn’t as bad as it felt.  
She forced herself to make a sound that could be perceived as a laugh.  
“Yeah,” her voice wavered, “I mean, I just kissed you.”  
Kiyoko didn’t look like herself. Yachi had never seen her look this uncomfortable, this disgusted, this scared.  
“But I’m straight.”  
Yachi felt the tears start to build near her eyes, but she could hold them back, at least for a little. She couldn’t help but think she knew it. She knew Tadashi was wrong. She knew this was all too good to be true.  
“But you just kissed me,” It was all she could do to say the words without crying.  
“Yeah, but I thought you were straight too,” Kiyoko was panicked, “I thought, I thought we were just messing around. I didn’t know you were- I mean I’m not, I’m not a-”  
She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to. Yachi remembered exactly how the word had sounded coming out of her mouth.  
_"A lesbian”_  
Biting her lip as hard as she could to keep from crying, Yachi just nodded. She wanted to tell Kiyoko it was fine. Not because that was in any way true, but because she needed her to leave. She needed to be alone.  
“I- I’m sorry Yachi,” Kiyoko explained, “I have to go.”  
Yachi just nodded again, looking down at the floor.

When she heard the door close behind her, Yachi dropped to the floor. She hugged her knees to her chest and let the tears she’d been holding back go. She felt sick to the pits of her stomach. How had a moment gone from a dream to a nightmare so quickly?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel so bad I said I'd do Yachi's love story and instead I pull this shit. I'M SORRY YACHI ·´`(>▂<)´`·  
> It will get better soon... I'm just not sure how yet.
> 
> btw if you are a straight girl and you do this we are officially enemies.


	6. Stronger Than She Looks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Tadashi finds Yachi crying on the floor of the equipment room after his run, he can't help but worry, but he learns pretty quickly not to underestimate his friend.

Yamaguchi knew something was wrong the second he returned from his run. He wasn’t the first back, he never was, but even by the time he arrived, with most of the team scattered around the gym, Kiyoko passing around their water bottles, he was surprised he couldn’t find Yachi anywhere. When he caught Kiyoko’s eye he realised something bad had happened. She had a weird expression. Maybe it wouldn’t be weird for anyone else but Shimizu pretty much rotated between two expressions, stoic and slight smile. This was neither. When her eyes darted to the equipment room door directly after seeing him he knew it was a message, even if didn’t intend it that way.

When he slowly pushed open the door of the equipment room he heard the distinct sound of crying coming from within. Yachi crying. He felt his stomach drop to the floor. Quickly closing the door behind him, he stepped into the little room. It was dark in there, the only light coming from a high window, but he could see the clear shape of his friend, crouched in a ball on the floor. So it hadn’t gone well then.

“Hitoka-chan,” he said softly.  
Yachi whipped her head around in panic, but when she saw who it was she relaxed again, sobbing even louder than before.  
“Hitoka-chan,” Tadashi repeated, crouching down by her side and wrapping her shoulders in his arm, “What happened?”  
She only cried in response, though he hadn’t really expected anything else. He felt awful. He’d been so wrapped up in him and Tsukki, and so grateful to her for encouraging him to pursue it, he assumed her situation would turn out the same way. All he’d wanted was to return the favour, and now he’d pushed her to do something she didn’t want to do, something she, from the looks of it, would deeply regret.

Silently, he rubbed her arm and held her close, letting her cry as long as she needed to. He didn’t know how long that would be, but it really didn’t matter. He just wanted to be there for his friend, he knew she would do the same for him. When she seemed close to pulling herself together he loosened his grip on her just a bit. Just enough that he could look at her face.  
“You want to tell me what happened?”

Yachi sniffled and wiped at her face. She was a mess of snot and tears, and her sleeve only served to spread it around, making her look even more insane, but Tadashi pretended not to notice. Slowly she nodded and looked up at him through puffy eyes.  
“She-” Yachi started, though the one word made her realise she wasn’t quite ready to talk yet, and she pulled Tadashi in to cry for a little longer.  
After a couple seconds, she pushed herself back and tried again.  
“I was going to confess,” she started, each word bookended by at least a couple sniffles, “And, and she stopped me,” Yachi’s face contorted in the way a child’s did when they were seconds from tears, “And she kissed me.”  
Tadashi tried not to let his confusion show on his face, but he certainly hadn’t expected that. If Kiyoko had kissed her and Yachi was this sad something must be very wrong. He had a million questions he knew he would never be able to ask. Instead, he patiently continued to hold her, waiting as long as he had to for her to finish her story. Yachi let out a breath that sounded like she was preparing to speak again, so Tadashi shifted his gaze back to her face.  
“And then-” Yachi’s voice wobbled, “I told her I- I didn’t even tell her I liked her, I just told her I was gay and,” she pulled in a deep sniffle, “the way she looked at me,” she swiped away the new tears that were rolling down her cheeks, “she doesn’t like me.”  
Her eyes met Tadashi’s and he could see they were full of so much pain. Her lips were shaking in a clear effort to hold back sobs.  
“You said she liked me!”

Tadashi felt a dark pit in his stomach. He felt guilty enough just hearing her cry, but hearing her acknowledge it? That it was all his fault. And she was right. He had told her, forced her, to dream when she was just trying to be realistic. He didn’t know what to say, it wasn’t like he had a defense. Instead, he just pulled her tight into his chest and hugged her with everything he had.  
“I know, I’m sorry.”  
With this Yachi was sobbing once again. Breathing in long, shaky breaths just to cry them out, loudly. Yamaguchi wondered if they could be heard in the rest of the gym, but it wasn’t like he was going to ask his friend to be quiet. If the team could hear them he would deal with it, that wouldn’t be Yachi’s responsibility.

A few seconds later, his question of whether they were heard was answered, at least partly, by the door creaking open just a sliver and Tsukki popping his head in. Yachi didn’t notice, her eyes tightly shut and her crying drowning out the noise, so Tadashi just gave Tsukki a look that said very clearly “No”. He got the memo immediately, removing his head from the door before quietly shutting it behind him. Tadashi could hear the mumble of him saying something to the rest of the gym. He could probably picture what was happening out there, all his teammates' expressions and questions, but not now. That didn’t matter, he just had to focus on making Yachi feel better.

Tadashi was so confused he was almost tempted to ask how it had all happened, why Kiyoko would kiss her if she wasn’t interested, but he knew it would help Yachi to hear those questions. To have to answer. Instead, when her cries finally died down for what he felt like must be the last time, he just ran a hand through her hair, trying to smooth it out, and gave her the warmest, most sympathetic smile he could manage.  
“You want to go for a walk?”  
He knew he couldn’t ask her to sit in the gym, to wait through practice with Kiyoko right beside her, with all the boys who had just heard her crying, but had no idea what had happened. Boys who had absolutely no frame of reference for the pain she was in. He also knew he didn’t want to leave her alone, and he knew she couldn’t stay here forever.

Yachi silently nodded, and the two of them climbed off the floor and brushed themselves off. Tadashi walked her to the door of the gym before asking Daichi if he could skip practice today. The captain, like everyone in the gym, looked very concerned for Yachi, but too confused to do anything about it, so he was quick to let Tadashi do whatever he wanted. Tsukishima gave him a worried look, but he just responded with an expression that meant “sorry”. He would tell his boyfriend everything later. He didn’t look at Kiyoko but just seeing her in his peripheral made him feel angrier than he’d been since his last fight with Tsukki.

When the two of them left the gym, Tadashi realised he didn’t really know what to do. He ended up just following the course of the fake dates they used to go on often. They stopped at the cafe ten minutes from school and got drinks, then made their way to the subway to go to Yachi’s favourite shopping mall. The walk to the cafe, not a single word was exchanged, but when they got there, they talked light-heartedly about their orders. Yachi teased Tadashi for getting an iced coffee in sub-zero weather and he managed to pull a small smile out of her with his defense that “he didn’t choose to be born bisexual”. By the time they got to the subway station they were able to hold a steady, though simple, conversation about how long it had been since they did something like this.

Slowly, after getting to the mall and wandering around for a while, Yachi started to talk a little more animatedly. Tadashi made more and more ridiculous jokes when he noticed she was laughing at them. He normally would be embarrassed to make a fool of himself like this, but today his dignity wasn’t his first priority. When he’d held up a frilly pink bikini against his body and asked Yachi if he should try it on she’d laughed so hard he almost forgot she’d just been heartbroken. He hoped maybe she was forgetting too. 

They didn’t talk about what had happened the entire time they were together, but after they hugged goodbye outside the front door of Yachi’s apartment building Tadashi saw a flicker of sadness return to her eyes.  
“Are you going to be ok?” he asked, the serious tone he’d avoided for the past three hours back in his voice.  
She took a long, deep breath, before nodding confidently.  
“Yeah,” she told him, “Yeah, I am,” she looked up at him and smiled, not a fake one, not the distracted and amused one, but a small, genuinely content smile, “Thank you, Tadashi.”  
Tadashi felt the guilt that had settled in his stomach lighten slightly and he smiled back at her.  
“Of course, any time.”  
Yachi laughed, “Yeah, well hopefully this won’t be a regular occurrence.”  
Tadashi laughed with her and waved goodbye as she walked into the apartment. When the door closed behind her, he exhaled a long sigh. He believed her, she would be ok.

* * *

When Yachi walked into morning practice the next day, even earlier than she normally would, she was determined to show everyone how entirely fine she was.   
“Good morning,” She greeted Daichi, Sugawara and Tanaka, the few players who had arrived before her.  
The boys looked at her in slight shock. Yachi didn’t really talk to any of those three, rarely spoke in groups of more than two, and never announced her entrance. After the choked sobs they’d all heard less than 24 hours before and the flashes of the bright red, tear soaked face they’d seen as she was on her way out, this was the last thing they’d expected. Yachi smiled smugly, she wanted to give them what they’d least expected. 

Kiyoko had also arrived early it seemed, and was fixing the recently jammed wheel on the scoreboard when Yachi walked in. The first-year didn’t look at her directly, but she could see Kiyoko’s eyes following her closely. It made her a little embarrassed, but she tried to ignore the heat on the back of her neck and hold her head up high. Kiyoko didn’t deserve to hold that kind of power over her. With her half-fake confidence, Yachi walked up to where Daichi was stretching.

“Hey captain,” she smiled, acting as though this wasn’t one of her first times speaking to the third-year directly, “What can I do to help set up for practice?”  
Daichi looked confused, and she didn’t blame him. This wasn’t normally something she would ask him, it was normally Kiyoko who would know what they needed to be doing and Yachi would just follow her directions, but Yachi’d thought about it the night before, and if she was going to limit her interaction with Kiyoko as much as possible, she’d have to figure out how to do her job of manager alone.  
“Umm,” Daichi looked to Sugawara for direction, but his friend just shrugged, “I guess, just whatever you normally do.”  
It was a bad direction, and it made Yachi conscious of just how little the team noticed her, but at least he hadn’t asked her to talk to Kiyoko.   
“Ok,” Yachi smiled, “I guess I’ll fill some water bottles then. Let me know if you have anything you need me for.”

She was aware of Kiyoko’s eyes on her for the entire conversation, they hadn’t left her since she’d entered the gym, but she was still unwilling to meet them. She just hoped for Kiyoko’s sake no one else noticed her obvious staring, though, on second thought, she didn’t give a shit about Kiyoko’s sake. Maybe all her friends would notice and she’d have to admit she kissed a lesbian. That would probably be hell for her, just like she deserved. 

When Tadashi and Tsukishima walked into the gym together Yachi knew Tsukishima had been filled in on the entire story, but she pushed down the emotion it sparked in her. It was fine, she wished everyone knew. It’s not like she’d done anything wrong, it was Kiyoko who should be embarrassed. She had to repeat this thought a couple times.

“Hi guys,” she walked up to them, smiling.  
They exchanged a look and Yachi could tell Tadashi was telling his boyfriend to go along with it. She was glad for that, glad to have Tadashi.  
“Hey,” Tsukishima mumbled in a tone only slightly brighter than his usual one.  
“Look,” Tadashi grinned pulling his backpack in front of him to show her the little duck dangling from the zipper, “I attached it the second I got home. Did you bring yours?”  
Yachi beamed and grabbed her messenger bag from the pile that sat near the door, “Yup! I’m so glad we got them.”  
They were just simple charms from a ¥100 machine, but Yachi liked them and Tadashi bought two so they could match. It made her happy.  
“They look so cute,” Tadashi agreed.  
His eyes shot across the gym and Yachi knew who he was looking at. Tsukishima was looking at her too. She didn’t say anything. She had promised she wouldn’t acknowledge Kiyoko’s presence, but it felt nice to have the boys glare for her. This way Kiyoko wouldn’t get any sort of power over Yachi, but she could still be reminded that what she did was wrong. That she was a bad person. Yachi was so lucky she had friends.

* * *

As the days passed into weeks Yachi managed to keep a solid distance from Kiyoko. When they did things together she would be as silent as possible, while still maintaining the image that _everything was fine_ , but Yachi realised there wasn’t actually too much she needed Kiyoko for anymore. She was comfortable enough with the people on the team, though Ukai still terrified her, to ask what they needed from her, and after almost five months as a manager, she knew how to do all those things. Even outside of the drama with her ex-crush, it made Yachi feel good to know she wasn’t useless, to know she could actually help the team without relying on someone else to show her how.

She knew Kiyoko felt guilty, or maybe just uncomfortable, she was often looking at Yachi like she had something to say, but she never said it. It felt weird that she knew her secret, and she could feel something in her glances when Kiyoko watched Yachi and Tadashi talk, but no one else seemed any different, so Yachi knew she hadn’t blabbed. Outside of that, though, Yachi was perfectly comfortable with her senpai being uncomfortable. If she had something to say she could come out and say it, otherwise she wouldn’t get any sort of sympathy. 

“You dumbass,” Yachi teased Tadashi as they tied their shoes, the gym slowly emptying after practice.  
It was more than two weeks since the kiss, winter break would be starting soon and Yachi still hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to Kiyoko.  
“It serves you right for letting him copy.”  
Tadashi had been complaining about being accused of cheating in class that day.  
“Tsukki always lets me copy though, what was I going to say, no?”  
Yachi smacked him on the back of the head, and glared at Tsukishima, who was standing just outside the door, as if to say she would whack him too if she could reach.  
“Neither of you should be copying! You’re smart, do your own homework.”  
Tsukishima rolled his eyes, “Okay, _mom_.”  
Tadashi laughed and stepped out to join Tsukki. Just as Yachi was about to do the same she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back to see Kiyoko standing over her looking ethereal. Yachi frowned, reminding herself what her grandma had once told her, that angels and demons often looked the same.

“I’m sorry boys,” the third-year smiled her normal, graceful smile at Tadashi and Tsukishima, “Can I talk to Yachi-san for a minute?”  
The two boys scowled at Kiyoko and Tadashi looked at Yachi as if to ask what she wanted him to do. Yachi’s heart was pounding, not in excitement but in fear, but she smiled at Tadashi in a way that said “it’s fine”. Not changing his darkened expression, Tadashi took a second to look Kiyoko up and down, reminding her he knew what she was, before he turned away and pulled Tsukki with him.

They had been the last people to leave the gym, so now it was empty except for the two managers. Yachi already had her outdoor shoes on and Kiyoko did not, so they sat together right inside the open door.  
It was silent for a while, until Tadashi and Tsukishima were too far away to be seen from the gym. Kiyoko was looking at Yachi carefully, but she was just staring ahead. It was getting harder to keep up her perfectly taylored _everything’s fine_ vibe.

“So,” Kiyoko finally started, “Are those two dating then?”  
Yachi looked over with tightened brows. That’s what she decided to ask? More than two weeks after what she did in the equipment room the first thing she asked Yachi was about Tadashi’s love life? As if she had any right to know.  
When Yachi didn’t answer, Kiyoko cleared her throat, a shimmer of her true discomfort showing under her facade of casual grace.  
“I’m really sorry Yachi.”

Yachi felt like she was going to be sick. She was so mad at Kiyoko. She knew what her senpai did was wrong, but the second Kiyoko said that, in her soft, gentle voice, Yachi felt herself wanting to forgive her. She took a deep breath, trying to maintain the calm she’d been able to hold until now. A part of her wished Tadashi could be there with her, but she knew he couldn’t. She knew she had to do this herself.

“You should be sorry,” Yachi managed, trying to sound confident and not hurt, not scared, “That was a really shitty thing to do.”  
“I-” Kiyoko almost sounded like she was going to make an excuse, but instead she just sighed, “I know.”  
They sat in silence for a couple seconds. Was that all Kiyoko was going to say?  
“Ok,” Yachi stood up and grabbed her bag, “That was fun, um, I don’t forgive you, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
She began to walk away, but Kiyoko grabbed her arm, “Wait, Hitoka-chan.”  
Yachi froze at the touch. It had been more than two weeks since Kiyoko last touched her and it triggered the memory so clearly. Yachi closed her eyes tight, trying to forget.  
“What?” Yachi barked, colder than she could ever imagine herself sounding.  
When she turned back, Kiyoko looked desperate.  
“I- I want you to forgive me.”  
Yachi couldn’t help but laugh. Was life really that easy for Kiyoko that she could just say things like that? Did she really just get what she wanted? Always?  
“That’s too bad Kiyoko-san,” Yachi shook her arm loose of Kiyoko’s grip, “You should have thought of that earlier.”

When Yachi reached the front gates of the campus, Tadashi and Tsukishima were leaning against the wall, chatting. They pushed off when they saw her come out.  
“So?” Tadashi asked as he matched her pace down the street.  
“Kiyoko-san’s a bitch,” Yachi scoffed.  
Tsukishima hissed a laugh. He’d never heard Yachi use that word before, Yachi rarely used it, but she decided if there was ever an occasion, this was it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yachi is now the president of the I hate Kiyoko club and I love it. Only problem is they're canonically friends by the time nationals start.... How will we resolve all this?
> 
> I say this every time but thanks for reading!!! Your comments always make me so happy!


	7. The New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter!  
> Tadashi and Hitoka enjoy their winter break before they have to go to Tokyo for nationals.

“When’s she coming?” Tsukishima muttered, wrapping his arms around Tadashi from behind as he finished up the cooking.  
“She should be here soon,” Tadashi’s eyes didn’t leave noodles in the frying pan under him. The last dish he had to finish.  
It was new year’s day and his parents had decided to take a two night trip to some hot springs somewhere. They’d invited him, but Tadashi said he had homework to do. It was really that he’d rather spend the day with his boyfriend. He’d decided once he realised he would be home alone he would have Yachi over too, cook them all a big meal. She was supposed to come at 6:30 and it was 6:15, and she was always early. Tsukishima, well, Tsukishima had been at his place since the night before.

“I can’t kiss you once she gets here, right?” Tsukishima planted a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek.  
Tadashi couldn’t stop himself from giggling. He pushed Tsukki back with his shoulder, though not hard enough that he would actually move away.  
“No, you can’t,” Yamaguchi tried to look stern, “She just had her heart broken, don’t make her third wheel.”  
Tsukki grumbled something incomprehensible, even from as close to Tadashi’s ear as he was speaking, and dropped the weight of his head on Tadashi’s shoulder. Tadashi continued stirring the noodles, trying to control his smile.  
“Well,” he said softly, “She’s not here yet.”  
Tsukishima didn’t need anything more than that, turning Yamaguchi’s head to face him and kissing him softly and warmly. Tadashi let himself forget about the noodles for a minute, until he started to hear the crackling sound of them burning at the bottom of the pan.

She couldn’t help but smile as he turned back to the stove, and he could feel Tsukki smiling over his shoulder too, arms still wrapped around his waist. He’d made only one wish for this new year, and that was for him and Tsukki to stay together. Just like this.

The doorbell rang through the small house and the hands fell from around Tadashi’s waist.  
“I’ll get it,” Tsukishima turned away.  
Tadashi grabbed his arm. It wasn’t that cold, Yachi could wait a couple seconds.  
“One last kiss,” he grinned.  
Tsukki was happy to oblige. It must have been more than a couple seconds, because the repeated sound of the doorbell being impatiently pressed interrupted them.  
Tsukishima was grinning when he pulled back from the kiss, and Tadashi had to bite down on his own smile. He turned back to the stove, more flustered than he ought to be after more than a month of kissing Tsukki. Behind him he could hear his boyfriend's receding footsteps, the click of the door, and the sound of Yachi’s voice immediately pouring in and filling up the space.

“Happy new year!” She sang, and Tadashi could tell, from the “oof” Tsukki made directly after, she had hugged him, probably with some force.  
“Oh my god, it smells amazing! Tadashi, did you cook all this?”  
Somehow she was already in the kitchen, so quickly Tadashi turned to check she’d taken off her shoes. She had, leaving him wondering what she had been wearing that could be removed so quickly.  
She piled an armload of bags on the kitchen table.  
“What’s all that?” Tadashi asked.  
He hadn’t asked her to bring anything, but she’d insisted on bringing a cake. This seemed like more than just a cake though.  
“Oh, nothing, just a couple little gifts and things,” she peeked around him to look at the food on the stove.  
“Oooh, yakisoba?”  
Tadashi nodded and she was already in another part of the kitchen, inspecting the dishes he’d made earlier. When Tadashi looked up, Tsukishima was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. Yachi was always a little more energy than Tsukki was used to, but Tadashi knew beneath it all he did enjoy her company. These days Tadashi would go to the bathroom or to get water during practice and come back to find the two of them happily chatting away. As much as she was his first friend other than Tsukki, he was pretty sure she was Tsukki’s first friend other than himself. She was an easy person to be friends with, despite what Tsukishima sometimes tried to claim, an easy person to like.

When Tadashi laid out all the food on the dining room table, even he was impressed with himself. He’d seen it in the kitchen, but laid out like this, it was a lot of food. And not all of it was as simple as the yakisoba. He’d made steamed buns from scratch, including the dough, three different meat dishes, four vegetable dishes, pickled radishes, and a pot of rice.  
“There’s no way the three of us are eating all this,” Tsukishima muttered, taking the words right out of Yamaguchi’s mouth.  
“No, I think we can do it,” Yachi tried, “It all looks good, and I’m really hungry.”  
The two boys looked at her, unconvinced. 

They started the meal and actually managed to do more damage than Tadashi would have guessed. He wouldn’t say it out loud, he insisted on remaining humble while his friends complimented him, but he knew he was a damn good chef. They finished all the steamed buns, which he was glad for, they wouldn’t keep as well as some of the other food, and they ate maybe about half of everything else. He definitely regretted making the yakisoba, it was unnecessary filler and not as good as everything else. Still, he was happy to have the leftovers. He knew his parents would be happy not to have to cook for a few days when they got back.

When they finished the food, Tsukishima and Yachi were both quick to volunteer to do dishes and clean up the kitchen. Tadashi told them it was fine, that they shouldn’t interrupt the party and that he could do it later when they left, but they wouldn’t have it. Together the three of them cleaned up from the feast pretty quickly. Yachi had baked a beautiful cake, though it tasted strangely salty. Not enough that it was inedible, not enough that Tadashi thought he should comment on it, but enough that he certainly wasn’t begging for a second piece. 

They played cards and chatted until Yachi’s mom called at quarter to midnight, telling her it was time to come home. When she left Tsukishima immediately rested his head on Tadashi’s shoulder, as if exhausted, mumbling about how far his house was and how it was already dark. How he should probably just stay the night again. It wasn’t like Tadashi needed too much convincing. 

Tadashi thought if this was any indication of how the year would go, it would be a good one.

* * *

On January 3rd, the day before the team left for Tokyo, the buzzer rang at Yachi’s apartment.  
“Honey, were you expecting someone?” her mom called from the front hall.  
Hitoka poked her head out of her room.  
“No, who is it?”  
“She says she’s your friend.”  
Yachi wasn’t sure who it could be. A few of her classmates knew where she lived but she didn’t have plans with any of them, and her mom had said “she”, so it couldn’t be Yamaguchi or Tsukishima.  
Her mom pressed the button for the intercom.  
“Hi! Sorry sweety, what did you say your name was?” she spoke.  
The idea hit Yachi while her mom was asking, and the second she heard the voice it was confirmed.  
“It’s Shimizu Kiyoko ma’am.”

“I’ll come down,” Yachi instantly announced.  
She didn’t know what Kiyoko was doing at her place, how she even knew where she lived, but the thought of her coming inside, the thought of her meeting Yachi’s mom. Even the two-sentence conversation they’d had over the intercom was embarrassing to Yachi. She thought the best way to prevent it from getting worse, from her mom saying something stupid to Kiyoko, or worse Kiyoko saying something stupid to her mom, was just to go down and get it over with.

In the elevator, though, her heart started beating. She started panicking. What was Kiyoko doing here? They hadn’t talked since that day after practice. Honestly, Yachi hadn’t even thought about her since the break started. One benefit of someone being an asshole is it makes it a lot easier to get over feelings for them. But that also meant she had no idea what she would say to Kiyoko.

When she saw her senpai through the glass doors of the complex, a fluffy white scarf wrapped around her neck, her silky black hair flowing over it like chocolate syrup on a vanilla sundae, Yachi’s heart pounded exactly once. Ok, maybe she wasn’t entirely over her.

“Hitoka-chan!” Kiyoko straightened up as Yachi opened the door.  
“What are you doing here?”  
Kiyoko seemed unprepared for that question, even though Yachi thought it couldn’t be unexpected.  
“How did you even find out where I lived?”  
Maybe that one would be easier.  
“Oh, I asked Hinata. I wanted to talk to you.”  
Hinata. Yachi supposed that made sense. Kiyoko must have known if she asked Tadashi he wouldn’t have told her. At least, not without asking Yachi first. Hinata, though Yachi did like him, didn’t have any idea what was going on between the two managers, and he wasn’t the type to ask many questions. 

“What did you want to talk to me about?”  
Yachi started walking away from the doors. She didn’t want to go too far. She didn’t want to spend any more time with Kiyoko than she had to. This was already uncomfortable enough, but it was rude to stand right in front of the door.  
“Um, I,” Kiyoko waited until they had stopped walking, until Yachi was facing her directly, looking in her eyes, “I wanted to apologize.”  
Yachi eyed her suspiciously. Hadn’t she already done that?  
“Properly,” Kiyoko added, “I’m really sorry Yachi. It’s all I’ve thought about since it happened, and I regret it so much.”  
That didn’t make Yachi feel any better. To know how much her crush regretted kissing her. That wasn’t exactly good news.  
“I didn’t think of your feelings, I just assumed you felt the same way I did, I had no idea-”  
Kiyoko stopped when she saw Yachi’s expression. 

Oh god, she really didn’t want to do this, but hearing Kiyoko’s explanation brought Yachi right back to that day. It reminded her how much she liked her, how stupid she had been for thinking her feelings were reciprocated. How Kiyoko must have thought she was crazy, how much she embarrassed herself. How much it hurt. It had been many weeks now, weeks of Yachi being somewhere between angry and “fine”, but she wasn’t angry and she definitely wasn’t fine. She was sad. She was hurt. She was crying. Again.

“Oh, oh dear Hitoka-chan, I’m so so sorry.”  
“That was my first kiss!” Yachi found herself crying, without planning it.  
“I-”  
“And I really liked you!”  
“Hitoka, I’m-”  
“Don’t kiss people you don’t like!”  
Kiyoko just stared at her with guilt and pain running through her eyes. Yachi had to bite hard on her lips to hold back as much of her tears as possible. She hated that Kiyoko had kissed her. She hated that Kiyoko had to apologize for that. Why couldn’t it just be a good memory? Why did it have to be so painful? Why…  
“You... You don’t like me, right?”  
Kiyoko didn’t respond, except with a frown full of pity and guilt. Yachi could only look at it long enough to register and then she had to look away. She didn’t know why she even asked.

“Hitoka-chan, I- You-” Kiyoko considered her words, “Your friendship means a lot to me.”  
She placed a hand on Yachi’s shoulder. She considered brushing it off, but, as much as she didn’t want to, she needed it. She needed someone to comfort her, even if it was the person who was hurting her.  
“I get it,” she managed through her tears. It hurt to bring herself to say it but, “Your… Your friendship is important to me, too.”  
“I-” Kiyoko’s tone was slightly lighter, “Would it be alright if I hugged you?”  
Yachi looked over at her, though puffy eyes. She hadn’t thought about it too much, because she was always looking for signs of something more, but Kiyoko had been a good friend to Yachi. Except, of course, the kiss. She’d got Yachi into the volleyball club, which led to all her new friends. She’d always taken good care of her, protected her from the scary boys. She’d always been the first to cheer her up when she was down. 

Sighing deeply, Yachi nodded her head. Kiyoko pulled her into a warm hug. For some reason, Yachi’s heart didn’t pound the way it normally would when Kiyoko touched her. For some reason she didn’t feel embarrassed. She let herself hold onto Kiyoko the way she would Tadashi, or her mom. Maybe it would all be ok. Maybe she could actually get over her this time.

“So,” Kiyoko was smiling softly when she pulled out from the hug, “Can we go back to being friends.”  
It took her a second longer, but Yachi smiled too, “Yeah.”  
It felt good. Friends.  
“No more kissing though!”  
Kiyoko looked at her panicked, “Of course! No, Hitoka, I promise, I-”  
“I’m teasing you!” Yachi laughed.  
Kiyoko blinked, then smiled, “oh.”  
Yachi wondered if she’d ever teased Kiyoko-san before. She probably hadn’t. She could never tease girls she had feelings for.

* * *

The morning they left for nationals was bitter and cold, and they had all woken up far earlier than they normally would have, but the whole team was buzzing with excitement. Even Tsukishima was amped up, though it wouldn’t be perceptible to the average person. He looked almost as pissed off as he always did. They all gathered in the school parking lot, waiting for the bus driver to show up.

When Yachi saw Kiyoko she flashed her a hesitant smile. Kiyoko immediately excused herself from her conversation with the other third years and walked over.  
“Good morning,” Kiyoko smiled, “How’d you sleep?”  
Yachi shrugged, “I accidentally stayed up playing animal crossing until pretty late. I think I only got about 4 hours.”  
Kiyoko laughed. Her laugh was still beautiful, it still made Yachi smile, but it didn’t make her heart race like before.  
“Well maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have a game today. Plus, you can just sleep on the bus.”  
Yachi was surprised how normal the conversation felt. How good it felt not to be mad anymore. Maybe they really could be friends again.  
“Should we sit together?” Yachi suggested.  
Clearly Kiyoko was glad to be friends again too, because she smiled widely at the idea.

When Kiyoko left Yachi to return to her other friends, her place was taken by Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. They both gave Yachi a look that reminded her she hadn’t told them what happened the day before. Even after she explained, though, they still looked suspicious.  
“That’s not that amazing an apology is it?” Tadashi argued, “I mean, she really hurt you.”  
“Well, it’s not really her fault-”  
Tadashi gave her a look that told her that was not the right thing to say.  
“No, I mean, it was, I’m not making excuses,” Tadashi wasn’t convinced, “No, what she did was shitty, but, but she’s a good friend, and she made a mistake, but she apologized.”  
Yachi couldn’t help but feel like she was getting defensive, that she was rationalizing. That maybe she had let Kiyoko off the hook too easily, but she didn’t want to be mad anymore. That was too much work.  
“I just want to be friends with her again.”  
Tadashi looked over at his boyfriend, and the two of them had some sort of silent conversation that Yachi couldn’t read. Their expressions didn’t look happy though.  
“Ok, obviously I can’t tell you what to do,” Tadashi told her, “and if you really want to be her friend again, I can’t stop you, but, please be careful Hitoka. I don’t want you to get hurt like that again.”

Yachi didn’t know how to reply, she just grinned.  
“What?” asked Tadashi.  
“No, it’s just,” she smiled, “that was so cute. You’re like my little protector man.”  
Tadashi blushed, “Hey, I’m being a good friend here! And I’m not little, I’m like a foot taller than you!”  
“You’re so cute,” Yachi laughed, “Isn’t he so cute, Tsukishima?”  
Tsukki looked away, trying to suppress his little grin. Tadashi turned to him, blushing more.  
“What? No, what are you- I was just giving advice!”  
Tsukki turned to him, his little smile spreading, “She’s right,” his voice was quiet enough that the other boys around them wouldn’t hear, “You’re really cute.”

“Okay!” Ukai called from behind them, “Everybody’s here? Let’s get a move on.”  
Tadashi was still bright red as they boarded the bus. Yachi joined Kiyoko in the front, while he and Tsukishima made their way closer to the back. Yachi fell asleep within minutes of the bus starting to move, and Tadashi, while wide awake, closed his eyes and pretended as an excuse to rest on Tsukki’s shoulder. Like that, they rode to Tokyo

* * *

“You were in the bath with her?”  
Tadashi couldn’t believe what Yachi was telling him that night when they met before going to sleep. Technically they were supposed to be asleep already. Technically they weren’t supposed to be hanging out like this.  
“I know,” she groaned, “It was so awkward, she’s acting like nothing ever happened.”  
“Well why’d you go with her?”  
“We’re the only two girls here, it just, I don’t know, it just happened.”  
Tadashi was shaking his head slowly, “I don’t know how you do it.”  
Yachi shoved him over, “Oh, wow! Sorry my love life’s a mess. We don’t all have your luck!”  
“Hey, I’ve had crushes that didn’t like me back,” he argued, “I just didn’t _bathe_ with them. I’m not a lunatic.”  
“Oh, oh, right,” Yachi laughed, “You just become their fake boyfriend?”  
“Wha-”  
“Tsukki told me you had a crush on me in the summer.”  
“I- Fucking Tsukki.” 

Tadashi was embarrassed, but Yachi was laughing her ass off. She’d been waiting for a chance to tease him about that. When she first heard it, it made her feel really guilty. She’d pressured him into the fake relationship thinking he was gay, and when she found out he was actually bi she’d wondered if it was a bad idea, but once he and Tsukki got together she couldn’t bring herself to pity Tadashi ever again. Finding out he actually had liked her for a bit meant she was definitely in the wrong for using him as a cover, but it was still really funny.

“To be fair I was over you when I agreed to pretend we were dating.”  
“Well, I’m over Kiyoko.”  
Tadashi looked surprised, “You are?”  
Yachi met his eyes, pausing for a second on the question. Yes, her heart rate in that bath had been probably a couple beats a minute from registering as a heart attack, and she would be stupid to pretend she didn’t still find Kiyoko beautiful, but in terms of actual feelings?  
“I think I am.”

Tadashi watched her for a second before he let his mouth curl into a smile. Not thinking about it enough to remember she hated it, he started ruffling her hair.  
“Hey!” she pushed his hand away.  
“I’m proud of you,” he told her, “and you’re too good for her anyway!”  
Yachi laughed, even though she knew Tadashi didn’t mean it as a joke.  
“Hey,” he continued, “If the game tomorrow doesn’t take too long, want to go watch some of the girls’ teams play together? Maybe we can find you a new crush.”  
Yachi’s eyes lit up, “Uh, yes, definitely, we’re doing that.”  
“You’re so shameless,” Tadashi teased.  
“Shame is overrated,” Yachi defended.

The two friends laughed, slowly piling on new jokes every time the laughter started to die down to the point where they were laughing so much they had to stop themselves or someone would catch them out of bed. Of course, the effort of trying to keep themselves from laughing only made them laugh harder. Soon, they didn’t even know what they were laughing about, but every time they looked at each other in the eyes they would break down once again.

When Tadashi first met Yachi, he’d only really ever had one friend. Getting to know her was a chance to get to know himself again. A chance to become confident in who that was. In less than a year of knowing her, he was sure she was one of the best friends he would ever have. She’d helped him through so much, helped him grow as a person, helped him go after what he wanted. It was because of her that he was dating Tsukki, that was enough to make him love her. He didn’t know exactly how it happened, but he was thankful every day he’d gotten to meet her and become her friend. 

When Yachi met Tadashi, she had always sort of been hiding. Holding herself back. She’d been scared of boys most of her life, so the idea that the closest friend she’d ever had would be one was unexpected to say the least, but somehow he was the person she was most comfortable with in the world. He always supported her, always had her back, and because of him, she was able to be herself for one of the first times in her life. Sure she’d been heartbroken, but she’d never even tried to pursue a crush before. Every day, Yachi found herself doing things she never would have been able to before she met Tadashi. He was her best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end（>﹏<）
> 
> Thank you so much to anyone who read this far. I hope you enjoyed, sorry this last chapter took so long, I guess I just wasn't ready for it to be over.
> 
> Now I'm gonna write some Kuroken or something I guess. <3


End file.
